Bio:

Eric Lee works primarily in oil in conjunction with a number of experimental techniques involving furniture stain, ashes, concrete, ignited gunpowder, digital components and a variety of papers. Subject matter is derived primarily from the post-industrial cities of the Great Lakes Basin, which serve as models for his interest in the American character and the rise and fall of civilizations. His work has been shown regularly throughout the upper midwest, most recently at the Rahr-West Museum in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. Eric Lee lives in Eau Claire, WI.

Artists Statement:

America, the civilization, is a production-based industrial event, and not one of documents, ideals or civil revolution. My interest lies in the forging of the American character as indivisible from that of the mill, shipyard, or mine. The factory is to America as the cathedral is to Europe and for much the same reasons. The relics of our industrial past are the palpable remains of our temperament, voracity and prodigy.

My paintings explore this inheritance as found throughout the rust belt region of the Great Lakes basin where the effects of mechanization were most starkly realized. Often shown in isolation, I choose megalithic and ponderous structures as archetypal portraits of the American character as ravenous, individualistic and estranged from history. I scar, detonate and afflict my canvases as a reenactment and portrayal of a brief, but volcanic era that defined itself through labor.

-  Eric Lee

Recent and Forthcoming Exhibitions

2010

Eric Lee & Jason Lanka, L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library, Eau Claire, WI

2009

Featured artist, State Street Gallery, Madison, WI

Sawdust City, exhibition at The First Amendment, Minneapolis, MN

The Dead and Dying of the Analogue World, Solo exhibition at Infinitea Teahouse, Eau Claire, WI

51st Annual Juried Student Art Show, Foster Gallery, University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire

2009 Wisconsin Artists Biennial, The Rahr-West Museum of Art, Manitowoc WI - Juror: Mark Pascale

Arts West 30, L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library, Eau Claire WI - Juror: Scott Stulen

Art Crawl at Bandbury, Banbury Place, Eau Claire, WI

2008

Midwest Regional Collegiate Scholarship Competition online exhibition

51st Annual Juried Student Art Show, Foster Gallery, University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire - Juror: Mathew Friday

Arts West 29, L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library, Eau Claire WI - Juror: John Rasmussen

Printable Curriculum Vitae

Contact Eric Lee:

Allouez@hotmail.com