Rhys Lee’s second solo exhibition at Karen Woodbury Gallery is much anticipated. Lee has been included in a wide range of significant contemporary curatorial exhibitions and has been listed in Australian Art Collector’s 50 Most Collectable Artists on two occasions. Lee’s work continues to be strongly influenced by his ongoing experimentation with paint. Lee takes this experimentation with paint further, by pushing his artistic investigations into new media and channels of inspiration.
With this new body of work Lee is looking at how we take inspiration from others very literally, as he actively collaborates with a range of artists that include: Rob McHaffie, Pia Murphy & Heidi Yardley. The exhibition will include a number of medium size oil on linen paintings that draw on his experiences in The Philippines, depicting human and animal forms. In these paintings we see a continuation of a dark palette of purples and blues contrasted with pink and green pastels. The characteristic focus and motif of the eyes and face re-occur. Lee will also present a range of collaborative works on paper and painted and glazed ceramic vessels and three-dimensional objects. There is a bohemian sense of the macabre found in the paint, clay and works on paper. An army of miniature Mexican ceramic skeletons are interspersed with sinister figures, unidentified creatures and a disembodied ceramic head with demonic ears.
Rhys Lee studied Visual Arts at the Queensland College of Art in Brisbane and now lives and works in Victoria. Rhys has held regular solo exhibitions since 2000 including Works on Paper, Apartment 2c, 152 Ludlow Street, New York (2008); Helen Gory Galerie, Melbourne (2000 – 2007); Snake, Tim Olsen Queen Street Gallery, Sydney (2007); Squad of Crack two, Volume Gallery, New York (2004); Squad of Crack, Melbourne Next Wave Festival (2004); Capitol Hill Rooting King, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne (2003); Untitled, Rubyayre Gallery, Sydney (2001); Untitled, Loft Gallery, Fortitude Valley, Queensland (2000) and It's Not About Them, Rubyayre Gallery, Sydney (2000).
His work has also been included in numerous group exhibition including Neo Goth Back in Black, University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane (2008); Contemporaneous: Australian Contemporary Painting 1, Wangaratta Exhibitions Gallery, Victoria (2008) and Swan Hill National Print and Drawing Acquisitive Awards, Swan Hill Regional Gallery, Victoria (2000). In 2005 Rhys was featured on the cover of Australian Art Collector (Issue 33) and he was also listed amongst their 50 Most Collectable Artists in 2006 and 2007. His work is held in a number of public and corporate collections including BHP Billiton, Art Bank, Bank of Switzerland and the University of Queensland Art Museum.
