A Bag of Ears showcases new, ambitious ceramic work alongside works on paper and canvas from Rhys Lee. Picking up where his last solo left off, Lee pursues the darker tones suggested in his practice.
Lee’s paintings evoke a half-forgotten memory, rendered with broad brushstrokes and populated by sparse but pointed elements of detail, which serve as focal points to the vague totality of the imagery. His ceramic works are likewise populated by enough detail to provide focus but blurry enough to leave much to the imagination.
A Bag of Ears will take place as part of the Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival’s Cultural Program. Lee’s history with fashion includes a collaboration with Lisa Gorman on a womenswear range for Gorman in 2012. The range consists of twenty-one limited edition pieces, viewable here, featuring Lee’s iconic painterly designs.
Lee graduated from a Bachelor of Visual Arts, Queensland College of Art in 1997. Solo exhibitions include Drawing Wall #12, Shepparton Art Museum, 2013; Still I’d Sea, Utopian Slumps, Melbourne, 2013; Cracked Pots, Venn Gallery, Perth, 2013; Recent Works, Jan Murphy Gallery, Brisbane, 2012; Scarecrow, Karen Woodbury Gallery, Melbourne, 2011; New Work, Tim Olsen Gallery, Sydney, 2011; Drawings from New York and Peru, Block Projects, Melbourne, 2010; Works on Paper, Apartment #2, New York, 2008; Gaggedfix, Melbourne Art Fair, Helen Gory Galerie, Melbourne, 2006; Squad of Crack, Next Wave Festival, Melbourne, 2004; and Squad Crack Two, Volume Gallery, New York, 2004. Selected group exhibitions include Animal/Human, The University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane, 2012;1.85 Million Art Peripheries, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Sydney, 2011; Immemorial Manilla, Vargas Museum, University of the Philippines, Philippines, 2010; Beleura National Works on Paper, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, 2010; and Unnaming of Parts, Blackstone Gallery, New York, 2009. Lee was finalist in the Archibald Prize, 2012 and the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize, 2009. His work is held in the Artbank, United Bank of Switzerland, BHP Biliton, Sothebys and University of Queensland Art Museum collections, as well as various private collections in Australia, the USA and the UK.
The exhibition will take place from Saturday 15 March to Saturday 5 April 2014.
