Rising Stars: Meet Joseph Lee

Hi joseph, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
My family immigrated to the US from Bangkok, Thailand during the early 70’s. We found ourselves in the Koreatown Area for our first few years as my father worked in the Courthouse Building adjacent to MacArthur Park. While continuing to assimilate, we kept on moving east in the 1980’s. With rather long stints in El Sereno and Alhambra in which I went to high school. Montebello was our last destination in the LA county, around the time of the Watts Riots in 1992. My parents as working professionals afforded us a life in the suburbs, but an ethnic suburbia which was interesting terms of cultural identification. After finishing my general ed classes at CSULA, I transferred to Otis School of Art and Design. A place where I found my voice under the tutelage of renowned artists based in LA. Still based in Downtown, LA., the area was still raw with cheap rent and large lofts.

Though remnants of the crack epidemic and violence still ravaged an immigrant community. It was a place where I was drawn to because of my familiarity to the area and its quasi-bohemian feel. We all made edgy work because we had to be on our toes. The sense of urgency to get things done was our modus operandi. The deep feeling of acceptance with people who had the same interests was something I really appreciated and still cherish. As it was time to graduate, we all had to make our way in the world. After coming back from Skowhegan Artists in residency program in the late 90’s, I took on a teaching job in Watts on a fluke referral from a friend. This was a place which I learned about the rewards of teaching through the reciprocity of human exchange. This community embraced me with open arms as I spent the next eight years directing and advocating for Arts education programs serving local youth. As I reflect, this sense of place stemmed from the recollection of Watts Riots 92. I remember ashes falling from the sky while at Art School. This phenomenon of circling back seems to be a pattern in my life and reflecting on my artistic practice currently.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I have felt tension and friction at every step in my life. This is largely due to a creative path which I chose and not following a conventional template. My easy going yet driven personality has helped me along the way, as patience is integral to personal relationships and the process of making and learning.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m an artist/painter working professionally for about 20 years and graduate of Otis School of Art and Design. The practice stems from collage and the immediacy of cutting and pasting fragments from a mediated world. In the early 2000’s, I was able to exhibit work in LA and NY. Showing found posters manipulated through collage and paint marks, eventually creating a scrim-like illusion. Interpolated with wordplay and sourcing from Ovid to cultural slang, a matrix was set to be further explored. Going through various iterations through the years, the embrace of Brutalist architecture currently offers a formal structure to make abstract paintings. Still using a collage sensibility, textures and placement are explored to evoke an idiosyncratic visual rhythm and tempo.

Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
Books: Dante’s Inferno Ovid’s Metamorphosis Eva Heese, Lucy Lippard The New Sculpture 1965-1975, Between Geometry and Gesture, edited by Richard Armstrong and Richard Marshall The Spirituality in Art, Abstract Painting 1890-1985 Visual Artists: Ad Reindhardt Hannah Hock Music: Bitches Brew, Miles Davis Live at the Fillmore East, Jimmy Hendrix The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, Lauryn Hill It was Written, Nas