Jane Lee

New York, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, Jane Lee: Beyond, New York, USA, 5 April - 5 May 2012

Tony Godfrey, Jane Lee: Beyond, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, Hong Kong, China, 2012, p. 12 - 13

Excellent overall condition as viewed. Unframed, on a Stretcher.
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With a BA in fine arts, as well as a diploma in fashion from LASALLE Collage of the Arts in Singapore, Jane Lee has gone on to win numerous awards, including  the Celeste Prize for painting in 2011. In 2007 she was also the first to receive the Singapore International Residency Art Prize, and in the same year was a finalist for the Sovereign Art Prize. Her work Raw Canvas was showcased at the Singapore Biennale 2008 and Collectors Stage at the Singapore Art Museum in 2011.

Lee’s exploration of the three-dimensionality in painting can be said to be the anti-thesis of the formalism characterised by abstract expressionism. Rather than focusing on the materiality of the canvas, her works straddle the division between painting and sculpture in order to draw attention to the space the works inhabit and the relationship between the object, space and viewer. In this sense, Lee’s work parallels the Minimalist movement pioneered by Carl Andre and Donald Judd. However, Lee’s artistic vocabulary is entirely her own. The tactile and sensuous quality in her work, achieved through delicate and organic forms created from innovative materials, creates an intimacy with the viewer. Lee’s artistic practice exposes the systems and structures of painting itself, but in a manner that is immersive. The canvases which seem to hang or droop wistfully, take on a life of their own with their persistent presence and volume.

Without Canvas, is demonstrative of Lee’s signature technique; engaging directly with the paint material, she cross-weaves and layers the paints into a lavishly intricate documentation of the process of painting itself. Under Lee’s careful and conscious paint application, Without Canvas subtly folds back in and on to itself, the gentle creasing just visible at the bottom of the canvas. Rendered in a stunning field of cadmium red, interspersed with jewel tones of purple, orange and green, this present Lot is an excellent example of her work.