To Begin Again by Jane Lee
OPEN TO PUBLIC
7 & 14 January 2023, Saturday
12pm - 3pm
There is an Eastern teaching, ‘Return to Zero’. This is what I’ve been practising in many phases of my life. From figurative painting I abandoned all techniques and skills I had accumulated for years, to start all over again by just exploring into the elements of painting. This eventually led me onto the path of a new abstraction. ― Jane Lee
In her creative journey, Jane Lee has wholeheartedly embraced the idea of ‘beginning again’, first, by switching careers in order to pursue visual art, and then as an artist, in moving from realism to abstraction, jettisoning the academic conventions and skills acquired from her training so as to arrive at her own visual vocabulary. Even within the trajectory of gestural abstraction that she became so well known for, Lee decided to stop creating in the mode that garnered her critical and commercial acclaim, in order to forge new directions in her artmaking. As such, her practice is marked by cycles of exploration, creation, and then letting go of these acquired techniques and identities. Making art is, however, like muscle memory, and vestiges of Lee’s past ideas and experiments inevitably inform and inflect each new cycle, with endings feeding into new beginnings.
This has resulted in a remarkably rich and varied body of work, united by certain motifs and preoccupations. This exhibition is an introduction to Jane Lee’s evolving methods, materials and ideas, and explores turning points that herald new approaches to Lee’s journey in art as well as in life.
- Excerpt by Tan Siuli
This exhibition is curated by Tan Siuli.
Read the exhibition catalogue here.
Not Here But Not There // Acrylic on fiberglass // 180 × 150 × 7 cm // 2021
Golden Realm (Fetish Series) // Mixed media on canvas // 88 × 65 × 8 cm // 2018
Alpha and Omega // Acrylic on fiberglass // 260 × 180 cm // 2022
Visit us on site to view the full collection of works in the exhibition.