Joyce Y-J Lee | At Last

Hamiltonian Gallery is pleased to present At Last, an exhibition of new works by Hamiltonian Fellow Joyce Y-J Lee.  In this latest series, Joyce Y-J Lee oscillates between mediums utilizing video, drawings and digital prints created during the time she recently spent in the Amargosa Desert in Nevada located on the edge of Death Valley. Living and working amongst the hauntingly beautiful landscape as well as the local residents of this small mining community, Lee has yet again produced introspective works that highlight the use of light as meaning.

By combining highly symbolic video composites with technically rendered pastel drawings, Joyce Y-J Lee creates “projection paintings” of pictorial spaces sourced from recognizable art historical paintings.  The video At Last, inspired by renditions of The Last Supper, portrays local residents of Beatty, Nevada, as Jesus and the twelve apostles dressed in contemporary garb, set in a slaughterhouse.  In the foreground sits a still life - a vanitas assemblage of a basin, skulls, bottles, and artifacts found in the harsh desert town.  At Last re-examines and re-contextualizes the historical and modern-day themes of sacrifice, sabotage, and the transience of life.  Accompanying the videos is a series of vanitas drawings that from one to the next slowly degrade into pixilated images that depict the break down of information, the brevity of life, and the certainty death.

 

click here to download a copy of the press release

 

 

March 12 – April 9, 2011


Opening Reception: 
Saturday, March 12th
7 – 9 pm

Artist Talk:
Thursday, March 17th
7 pm


Hamiltonian Artists:
Joyce Y-J Lee