*Maia Ruth Lee*

Born in Busan, South Korea, Maia Ruth Lee arrived in New York City in 2011 after living between Kathmandu and Seoul. Deeply informed by questions surrounding the self in times of dispersion, mobility, and rootlessness, Lee's multidisciplinary practice spans photography, video, painting, and sculpture. Using translation as an apparatus, Lee transmutes her works between mediums, connecting themes of borders, community, and language, with embodiments of carriers, loss, and self-preservation through process and materials. Relocating to Salida, Colorado in 2020 influenced much of Lee's recent work—the expanded space of her new setting is evident in the shifted work. Unraveled in order to be opened, layers of the Bondage Baggage serve as grids, atlases, maps, and readers. The impressions and tracings make way for Lee’s tender navigation of the contours and accumulations of a life.
Language as a mechanism in its ability and failure to shape and give account to experiences, memories, and emotions has been a major thread in Lee’s work, as for those whose lives are precarious and unrooted—maps, atlases, and banners become a device that calls to mind their life of movement, and often, loss. Lee’s use of india ink, with its reference to calligraphy, points to a human compulsion for storytelling, mark making, and archiving. Rather than lingering in futility and loss, Lee’s work opens up a passage way, forging new lexicons that give form to lives of transience and their stories, beyond immediate and accepted forms of legibility and comprehension.

Maia Ruth Lee has held solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver (CO), Francois Ghebaly Gallery (LA), and Tina Kim Gallery (NY). Lee has participated in numerous group exhibitions including the Aspen Art Museum (CO), 2019 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, Helena Anrather Gallery, CANADA gallery, Studio Museum 127, Salon 94, Overduin & Co. Gallery, and Roberts & Tilton Gallery. Lee attended Hongik University in Seoul, and the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver, Canada. Lee was the recipient of the Gold Art Prize in 2021 and the Rema Hort Mann grant in 2017. Her work is held in the public collections at the Whitney Museum of American Art.
(Excerpt: Tina Kim Gallery Website)

“Bondage Baggage Residuum” Maia Ruth Lee

$2,500.00

“Bondage Baggage Residuum” Maia Ruth Lee

44” x 35"

4 color hand pulled screen print on Coventry Rag

Limited Edition of 20 qty, with 1 AP, 1 PP

Printed and Published by Kingsland Editions

Born in Busan, South Korea, Maia Ruth Lee arrived in New York City in 2011 after living between Kathmandu and Seoul. Deeply informed by questions surrounding the self in times of dispersion, mobility, and rootlessness, Lee's multidisciplinary practice spans photography, video, painting, and sculpture. Using translation as an apparatus, Lee transmutes her works between mediums, connecting themes of borders, community, and language, with embodiments of carriers, loss, and self-preservation through process and materials. Relocating to Salida, Colorado in 2020 influenced much of Lee's recent work—the expanded space of her new setting is evident in the shifted work. Unraveled in order to be opened, layers of the Bondage Baggage serve as grids, atlases, maps, and readers. The impressions and tracings make way for Lee’s tender navigation of the contours and accumulations of a life.

Language as a mechanism in its ability and failure to shape and give account to experiences, memories, and emotions has been a major thread in Lee’s work, as for those whose lives are precarious and unrooted—maps, atlases, and banners become a device that calls to mind their life of movement, and often, loss. Lee’s use of india ink, with its reference to calligraphy, points to a human compulsion for storytelling, mark making, and archiving. Rather than lingering in futility and loss, Lee’s work opens up a passage way, forging new lexicons that give form to lives of transience and their stories, beyond immediate and accepted forms of legibility and comprehension.

Maia Ruth Lee has held solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver (CO), Francois Ghebaly Gallery (LA), and Jack Hanley Gallery (NY). Lee has participated in numerous group exhibitions including the Aspen Art Museum (CO), 2019 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, Helena Anrather Gallery, CANADA gallery, Studio Museum 127, Salon 94, Overduin & Co. Gallery, and Roberts & Tilton Gallery. Lee attended Hongik University in Seoul, and the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver, Canada. Lee was the recipient of the Gold Art Prize in 2021 and the Rema Hort Mann grant in 2017. Her work is held in the public collections at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

“B.B.S. 2-9 Gaza” Maia Ruth Lee (Signed Limited Edition)

$600.00

“B.B.S. 2-9 Gaza” Maia Ruth Lee, 2024

24” x 18"

3 color hand pulled screen print on Rives BFK Cream

Signed by artist, Limited Edition of 10 qty

Printed and published by Kingsland Editions

This print is a symbol of Palestinian liberation - a symbol of baggage unbound & unwrapped, and a symbol of a right of return for all Palestinians to a Free Palestine.

***All proceeds will directly be wired to a team on the ground in Gaza, and will be used towards providing clean water, warm clothing and blanket delivery; building clay ovens, toilets, and temporary shelters for those violently displaced from their homes. This micro-fundraiser initiative is organized by Gaza Mutual Aid Solidarity, a small group of volunteers who have loved ones in Gaza. Since November GMAS has been giving direct mutual aid to families to meet their basic needs, and organizing teams to cook for the displaced families in Rafah.

All Sales Final

“B.B.S. 2-9 Gaza” Maia Ruth Lee (unsigned open edition)

$175.00