Austin Lee

Lee was born in Las Vegas, Nevada, and raised in Philadelphia. He received an MFA in painting from Yale School of Art in 2013 and a BFA in painting from Tyler School of Art in 2006.

While a student at the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, Lee's studio doubled as a gallery space where he organized group and solo exhibitions to promote his artistic community.{{Cite web|url=https://coolhunting.com/culture/studio-visit-austin-lee/|title=Studio Visit: Austin Lee|last=Zuri|first=Afrodet|date=March 21, 2019|website=Cool Hunting|access-date=November 18, 2019}} After attending Yale for his MFA, Lee moved to New York in 2013.

Lee once defined himself "a computer nerd as well as an artist." The use of digital platforms and technologies offer him the opportunity to work against the tradition of painting: Lee transitioned from using Adobe Photoshop in his early work to adopting the Oculus Rift's virtual-reality program Medium as an imaginary studio.{{Cite web|url=https://garage.vice.com/en_us/article/kzd5ax/austin-lees-feel-good-art-is-more-complicated-than-it-seems|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200921202110/https://garage.vice.com/en_us/article/kzd5ax/austin-lees-feel-good-art-is-more-complicated-than-it-seems|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 21, 2020|title=Austin Lee's Feel-Good Art Is More Complicated Than It Seems|last=Indrisek|first=Scott|date=March 13, 2019|website=Garage Magazine|access-date=November 17, 2019}} He then transfers the V.R. drawings to the canvas through the use of the airbrush and the paintbrush. As a result of this technique, the final paintings are very luminous and evoke both the light of a computer screen and the intense coloration of color field painting. Lee investigates how different types of human gestures and touch – both digitally rendered and organic – can affect viewers.{{Cite news|url=https://www.artforum.com/picks/austin-lee-65177|title=Austin Lee|last=Miao|first=Zijin|date=2016|work=Artforum}}

The artist sources his subjects from his daily life: people who attract his attention on the subway or the internet, scenes of ordinary activities, animals, and flowers.{{Cite web|url=https://coolhunting.com/culture/studio-visit-austin-lee/|title=Studio visit: Austin Lee|last=Zuri|first=Afrodet|date=March 21, 2019|website=Cool Hunting|access-date=December 6, 2019}} Many of Lee's works evoke the emojis that have become part of everyday conversation. However, by confronting the viewer with familiar images, his works explore the dichotomy of contemporary phenomena, such as social media, that carry both positive and negative effects.{{Cite web|url=https://wwd.com/eye/people/austin-lee-solo-exhibition-feels-good-jeffrey-deitch-gallery-1203073898/|title=Austin Lee Mounts Solo Exhibition 'Feels Good' at Jeffrey Deitch|last=Tauer|first=Kristen|date=March 6, 2019|website=WWD|access-date=December 6, 2019}}

Further exploiting the possibilities offered by the world of V.R., Lee has also created a series of sculptures that give form to his digital drawings with the use of a 3D printer. While at first glance, the subjects of these sculptures appear joyful and soothing, the distortions of forms attribute a disturbing note to their flashy cheerfulness.

Lee's work entertains a dialogue with the work of artists from older generations.{{Cite web|url=https://garage.vice.com/en_us/article/kzd5ax/austin-lees-feel-good-art-is-more-complicated-than-it-seems|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200921202110/https://garage.vice.com/en_us/article/kzd5ax/austin-lees-feel-good-art-is-more-complicated-than-it-seems|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 21, 2020|title=Austin Lee's Feel-Good Art Is More Complicated Than It Seems|last=Indrisek|first=Scott|date=March 13, 2019|website=Garage Magazine|access-date=December 6, 2019}} While the effortlessness of Alex Katz's paintings has certainly influenced him, the use of new technology in David Hockney's iPad Drawings and Cindy Sherman's Instagram self-portraits likewise resonates in Lee's works.

Art critic Will Heinrich at The New York Times affirmed, “Austin Lee's analog portraits of cyberspace are strangely fascinating."{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/26/arts/design/gallery-guide-soho.html|title=Spring Gallery Guide: SoHo|last=Heinrich|first=Will|date=April 26, 2019|work=The New York Times|access-date=November 18, 2019}} Jeffrey Deitch has compared Lee's practice to Pop Art, “As Andy Warhol used photo silkscreens to connect painting with the image-making technologies of the 1960s, Lee fuses digital techniques with traditional painting and sculptural processes to create totally contemporary works of art."{{Cite web|url=http://deitch.com/new-york/exhibitions/austin-lee-feels-good|title=Austin Lee: Feels Good|website=Jeffrey Deitch|access-date=December 6, 2019}}

• Human Nature, M WOODS Museum, Beijing, 2022
• American Psyche, Austin Lee & Mark Thomas Gibson, Carl Kostyál, Stockholm, 2021{{Cite web|title=American Psyche – Carl Kostyál|url=https://kostyal.com/exhibitions/america-psyche/|access-date=2022-01-19|language=en-GB}}
• Paradise, Carl Kostyál in collaboration with KALEIDOSCOPE, Spazio Maiocchi, Milan, Italy, 2019{{Cite web|title=Paradise – Carl Kostyál|url=https://kostyal.com/exhibitions/paradise/|access-date=2022-01-19|language=en-GB}}
• Feels Good, Jeffrey Deitch, New York City, 2019{{cite web|first1=Kristen|last1=Tauer|access-date=2019-11-22|title=Austin Lee Mounts Solo Exhibition 'Feels Good' at Jeffrey Deitch|url=https://wwd.com/eye/people/austin-lee-solo-exhibition-feels-good-jeffrey-deitch-gallery-1203073898/|date=6 March 2019|website=Women's Wear Daily}}{{cite web|access-date=2019-11-22|title=Into: Austin Lee's Uncynical Day-Glo Sculptures at Jeffery Deitch|url=https://www.interviewmagazine.com/art/into-austin-lee-feels-good-jeffrey-deitch|date=28 March 2019|website=Interview}}
• Constant Joy, Mosaic Art Foundation, Istanbul, 2019{{Cite web|url=https://www.kostyal.com/exhibitions/constant-joy/|title=Austin Lee: Constant Joy|access-date=December 6, 2019}}
• Tomato Can, Peres Projects, Berlin, 2018{{Cite web|url=https://peresprojects.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/AL-Interview-16.Jan-2018.pdf|title=INTERVIEW: Austin Lee, Tomato Can|date=January 16, 2018|access-date=December 6, 2019}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.berlinartlink.com/2018/02/16/exhibition-austin-lees-tomato-can-at-peres-projects/|title=Exhibition // Austin Lee's 'Tomato Can' at Peres Projects|last=Radley|first=Jack|date=February 16, 2017}}
• Serious Works, Kaikai Kiki, Tokyo, 2017{{Cite web|url=http://en.gallery-kaikaikiki.com/category/exhibitions/ex_solo/solo_austin-lee/serious-works/|title=SERIOUS WORKS: AUSTIN LEE|last=Murakami|first=Takashi}}
• Light Paintings, BANK, Shanghai, 2016{{Cite web|url=http://www.randian-online.com/np_event/austin-lee-light-paintings-bank/|title=AUSTIN LEE, "Light Paintings," BANK MABSOCIETY, Shanghai|website=Ran Dian}}
• Anxiety, New Galerie, Paris, 2016{{Cite web|url=http://www.newgalerie.com/?page=exhibitions&id=46|title=Austin Lee, Anxiety|website=New Galerie}}
• Nothing Personal, Postmasters Gallery, New York, 2015{{Cite web|url=http://www.postmastersart.com/archive/lee15/lee15.html|title=AUSTIN LEE: Nothing Personal|website=Postmasters}}
• NO FAIR, Isbrytaren, Carl Kostyál, Stockholm, 2015{{Cite web|url=http://radarcollective.com/arts/no-fair-austin-lee-isbrytaren/|title=No Fair: Austin Lee at Isbrytaren|last=Andersson Åsman|first=Klara|date=March 14, 2015|website=Radar}}
• Me Art, Kaleidoscope, Milan, 2015
• Mixed Feelings, Carl Kostyál, London, 2014{{Cite web|url=https://www.kostyal.com/exhibitions/mixed-feelings/|title=Austin Lee: Mixed Feelings|website=Carl Kostyál}}
• OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK, Postmasters Gallery, New York, 2014{{Cite web|url=http://www.postmastersart.com/archive/lee14/lee14direct.html|title=AUSTIN LEE: OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK|website=Postmasters}}

• Punch, Curated by Nina Chanel Abney, Jeffrey Deitch, Los Angeles, 2019{{Cite web|url=http://deitch.com/los-angeles/exhibitions/punch-curated-by-nina-chanel-abney|title=Punch, Curated by Nina Chanel Abney, Jeffrey Deitch, Los Angeles}}
• Punch, Curated by Nina Chanel Abney, Jeffrey Deitch, New York, 2018{{Cite web|url=https://deitch.com/new-york/exhibitions/punch|title=Punch, Curated by Nina Chanel Abney, Jeffrey Deitch, New York}}
• Summer Show, Carl Kostyál, Stockholm, 2017{{Cite web|title=Call me – Carl Kostyál|url=https://kostyal.com/exhibitions/call-me/|access-date=2022-01-19|language=en-GB}}
• The Second Self, Peres Projects, Berlin, 2017{{Cite web|url=https://peresprojects.com/exhibitions/the-second-self/|title=The Second Self}}
• For Pete’s Sake, Carl Kostyál, Stockholm, 2016{{Cite web|title=For Pete's Sake – Carl Kostyál|url=https://kostyal.com/exhibitions/for-petes-sake/|access-date=2022-01-19|language=en-GB}}
• Full of Peril and Weirdness: Painting as a Universalism, M Woods, Beijing, 2015{{Cite web|url=https://independent-collectors.com/collections/m-woods-heart-of-the-tin-man/|title=Heart of the Tin Man}}

{{Reflist}}

• [https://wwd.com/eye/people/austin-lee-solo-exhibition-feels-good-jeffrey-deitch-gallery-1203073898/ Interview in WWD]
• [https://coolhunting.com/culture/studio-visit-austin-lee/ Interview in Cool Hunting]
• [http://officemagazine.net/austin-lees-3d-reality Interview in Office Magazine]

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Category:American male artists

Category:Temple University Tyler School of Art alumni

Category:Yale School of Art alumni

Category:Artists from Las Vegas

Category:Sculptors from Nevada

Category:Date of birth missing (living people)

Category:Living people

Category:1983 births