Jonathan Lee is an artist and librarian based in Richmond VA. His studio practice explores ephemeral memory, secret histories, and social constructions, often through abstracting activated materials. His social practice utilizes multi-modal approaches to engage individuals, small groups, and communities with ideas, and one another, through discussion, art making, and display. His work has been exhibited at the Taubman Museum of Art, Virginia MoCA, Piedmont Arts, Quirk, the Harnett Museum of Art, Swope Art Museum, Washington and Lee University, Roanoke College, Christopher Newport University, George Mason University, and various other galleries and institutions nationwide. It can also be found in various public and private collections around the globe. Lee has an MLIS from Wayne State University and is currently a Lecturer in Library and Information Studies at Old Dominion University.
My work is made predominantly from used, discarded, or repurposed materials. Charged by exchanges and interactions of often unknown consequence, these materials have the power to reveal things about our past, present, and future, not just because of what they are, but who we are. By altering their original form and function, I’m investigating how information is created, interpreted, and renewed through individuals, communities, and systems. By engaging in both art making and the research process, I solve problems of my own design while reflecting on problems in the world.
In the studio, I’m engaged in at least two conversations. One is with myself – what am I feeling and thinking? The other is with the materials themselves – what are they doing and saying? Where these dialogs overlap is where the work takes shape; a product of following small details to unexpected places.
In the field, it’s about the conversations we have with one another during periods of introspection, collaboration, and creation. I provide a flexible, yet sound framework on which both individual and group experiences can form. Participants then apply their own unique imagination and point of view to the questions posed, manifesting work that cannot be fully known until completed.
In the end, all my work responds to both the materials and the maker, a collection of personal and communal experiences where patterns and connections are both made and broken. These abstractions offer an alternative apparatus for taking in and questioning information. An opportunity to consider things differently.
Contact: JLEERVA AT GMAIL DOT COM
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