James Chiahan Lee
Home: Montréal, Quebec
Title: Self, 32
Media: Oil on wood panel
Dimensions: 91 x 61 cm
Website: jlee.ca
Instagram: @buttmcbutt
ARTIST STATEMENT
This painting uncovers my inner experience of being a person far removed from their original culture, searching for a way back. Sitting in my Montréal apartment kitchen, I surround myself and dress myself with culturally-coded everyday items that are at once superficial, commodified and deeply sentimental.
I aim to express the curiosity, pain, embarrassment, and joy that comes with reconnecting with crucial parts of my life that a younger self often tried to minimize as a damaging bid for belonging.
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
James Lee Chiahan (b.1990) is a Taiwanese-Canadian artist based in Montréal, Canada. I am fascinated by how images can pull on the heartstrings in a universal way like a melody or a meal. The emotional capacities of painting and drawing are the driving force behind my practice.
My art explores the bittersweetness of life and the human experience, expressed through the lens of personal experience and remembrance. I am drawn to images that have a strong emotional resonance, often depicting moments in mundanity that are deeply affecting and difficult to articulate. At its core, my work celebrates and laments what we hold dear.