Maia Ruth Lee
Biography
Working across painting, sculpture, photography and film, Maia Ruth Lee has crafted an elegant visual lexicon that takes on the complexities of the self in times of dissonance and globalization. Lee was born in Busan, South Korea, grew up in Kathmandu and Seoul, spent over a decade in New York City, and has lived in recent years in Salida, Colorado. Migration lies at the core of her experience. In her practice, Lee brings this cross-border perspective to bear in works that often evoke wayfinding in the form of maps, atlases, and banners. An underlying interest in language, translation, symbols, and signs runs throughout her work. The body, too, is an enduring concern for Lee, whose bound baggage and textile works metaphorically visualize the accumulations and contours of a life. Navigating universal phenomena like loss and change, Lee’s tender, expansive practice embodies journeying itself, giving form to migrations of people, tongues, and ideas.
Maia Ruth Lee (b. 1983 Busan, South Korea) lives and works in Salida, Colorado. Recent solo exhibitions include François Ghebaly, Los Angeles (2024, 2022); Institute of Fine Arts, New York University (2024); Tina Kim Gallery, New York (2023) and Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver (2021). Lee participated in numerous group exhibitions including Center for Visual Arts, Denver (2023); Aspen Art Museum, Aspen (2022); Whitney Biennial, New York (2019) and Studio Museum 127, New York (2019). Her work will be featured in the 2024 iteration of Prospect New Orleans, Prospect.6: the future is present, the harbinger is home.
Maia Ruth Lee (b. 1983 Busan, South Korea) lives and works in Salida, Colorado. Recent solo exhibitions include François Ghebaly, Los Angeles (2024, 2022); Institute of Fine Arts, New York University (2024); Tina Kim Gallery, New York (2023) and Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver (2021). Lee participated in numerous group exhibitions including Center for Visual Arts, Denver (2023); Aspen Art Museum, Aspen (2022); Whitney Biennial, New York (2019) and Studio Museum 127, New York (2019). Her work will be featured in the 2024 iteration of Prospect New Orleans, Prospect.6: the future is present, the harbinger is home.
Works
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B.B.C.M. 1-1, 2024
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B.B.M. 3-1, 2024
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B.B.Earth, 2024
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B.B.Time_Until Liberation 2, 2024
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B.B.M 42 Marigold, 2023
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B.B.M 2-2, 2023
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B.B.M 2-1, 2023
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B.B.L 2-1, 2023
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Bondage Baggage Figure II, 2022
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Obangsaek Skin, 2022
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Bondage Baggage Map II, 2022
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Bondage Baggage Atlas VI, 2022
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Self Portrait II, 2022
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Bondage Baggage Reader III, 2022
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Bondage Baggage Map VIII, 2022
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Language of Grief 02, 2021
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Language of Grief 05, 2021
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Language of Grief 03, 2021
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B.B.Glyph 1, 2019
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Bondage Baggage 4, 2018
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Bondage Baggage 3, 2018
Installation Views
Exhibitions
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Maia Ruth Lee
hold shimmer wind May 18 - June 15, 2024 2245 E Washington Blvd., Los AngelesIn periods of trouble, we move, as if blinded, through populated fields of unknowns. At the seeing-borders of being human, we witness, red, blue, blue, blue, blue, green, yellow, blue...Read more -
Strong Winds Ahead
Curated by Lekha Jandhyala July 29 - September 9, 2023 2245 E Washington Blvd., Los AngelesStrong Winds Ahead is a group exhibition that extends a slow and outward escape. The escape begins in an exhausted city—the destination unclear. Encapsulating the middle space between life and...Read more -
Maia Ruth Lee
Migrant Reader July 9 - August 20, 2022 2245 E Washington Blvd., Los AngelesFrançois Ghebaly is proud to present Migrant Reader by Maia Ruth Lee, the artist’s first solo exhibition at the gallery. Maia Ruth Lee’s multidisciplinary practice spans photography, video, painting, and...Read more
Press
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Maia Ruth Lee’s Art of Movement and Memory
Sigourney Schultz, Hyperallergic, June 5, 2024 -
A Tension in Paint Befitting Our Times
John Yau , Hyperallegic, April 19, 2024 -
Inside Maia Ruth Lee’s Solo Exhibition at Tina Kim Gallery
Kristen Tauer, WWD, April 12, 2024 -
Artist Maia Ruth Lee on Finding Meaning in Rootlessness
Maia Ruth Lee and Shannon Lee, The Amp, May 30, 2023 -
Maia Ruth Lee Transforms the Materials of Migration
Annabel Keenan, Hyperallergic, May 1, 2023 -
Maia Ruth Lee’s Artworks Pick Up Where Language Falls Short
Kealey Boyd, Hyperallergic, May 19, 2021 -
Access to Tools: The Glyphs of Maia Ruth Lee
Somnath Bhatt, Walker , February 7, 2020 -
The Whitney Biennial Called. How Will They Answer?
Siddhartha Mitter, The New York Times, May 9, 2019 -
The Artist Who Went From Trekking the Himalayas to Teaching the Girls of the Lower East Side
Christine Whitney, The Cut, May 15, 2017
Inquiry