Hannah Lee

Outside presents five new works in oil from the artist Hannah Lee. In the winter of 2021, Hannah’s solo debut, First Language, introduced us to a painter whose subjects and compositions revealed the fusions between intimacy of discomfort, depicting a spectrum of ‘closeness’ between people in uncanny, dream-like scenes. For her sophomore show with Entrance, Lee has turned her eye 'outside', away from the interior-of-the-exterior, to the surfaces of her surroundings. In these paintings, Lee relied upon the most essential element of painting - light - to guide her to her latest subject matter. Through Lee’s eyes, common scenes become imbued with a new depth, a strengthened ability to hold our attention, or settle us into a reverie. The contrast of the hard brick and soft curtains of a new building, a claustrophobic gallery foyer, a new tenant viewing the empty apartment next-door to her home studio, a hoard of people dining in her hometown, and the light and shadows crawling in shapes across her ceiling. With Outside, Lee processes her life through the refraction of light and attention, allowing the viewer to experience a tenderly immersive gaze into her world.

Hannah Lee (b. 1989, Madison, Wisconsin); BFA: Parsons School of Design, NY; lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Lee made her solo debut at Entrance in 2021 with ‘First Language.’

Since graduating in 2012, Lee has participated in numerous group shows, including Shifting Glances (2022) at Simone Subal in New York, Wonder Woman (2022) at Deitch Projects in Los Angeles, as well as internationally in Manila and Tokyo.