Lindy Lee
25 Oct 2024 – June 2025
Level 2, Gallery 25
Free with ticket
‘My work is all about time… The primary truth is that everything changes from moment to moment — nothing is permanent. For me, this is a very beautiful and poetic way of describing and embracing existence.’
About
Lindy Lee is one of Australia’s most accomplished contemporary artists. To complement the unveiling of Ouroboros, Lee’s major new public art commission for the National Gallery, this exhibition brings together highlights from across the artist’s career as well as a monumental new installation and works on paper. Exploring themes of ancestry, spirituality, the environment and the cosmos, this display of new and recent works will shed light on Lee’s ever evolving and ambitious practice.
Lee's new work Charred forest alludes to the cyclical notions of existence, migration, transformation and hope. It comprises camphor laurel trees that have been treated using the Japanese preservation technique of Shou Sugi Ban which blackens the logs, before being pierced with a scattering of conical holes revealing the natural colour of the timber underneath. Piercings will appear as stardust, falling from above and penetrating the tops of the branches.
The exhibition continues to build on the National Gallery’s Know My Name initiative which celebrates the work of all women artists with an aim to enhance understanding of their contribution to Australia’s cultural life.
Please book a free Gallery entry ticket to gain admission to the National Gallery. We encourage you to book ahead of your visit.
Curators: Deborah Hart, Head Curator, Australian Art
Deirdre Cannon, Assistant Curator, Australian Art
Major Partner
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Artist
Lindy Lee was born in 1954 in Meanjin/Brisbane. Her grandparents and parents emigrated to Australia from China’s Guangdong province, and this cultural heritage was to have a profound impact on her art. Lee initially studied to be a high school teacher, graduating from Kelvin Grove College of Advanced Education in 1975. She later travelled to Europe where her encounters with art and museums inspired her to pursue a career as an artist. Lee studied fine arts at Chelsea College of Arts in London (1980) and later at Sydney College of the Arts (1984). She now lives and works in the Byron Bay hinterland in New South Wales.
Consistent influences on Lee’s practice include Taoism and Zen Buddhism. A practising Buddhist since the early 1990s, Lee says that ‘Zen practice directs me to something fundamental about being, which is that we are constantly in flux and change’. This sense of transition, malleability and impermanence is reflected in her contemporary work, in which delicate perforations are singed into metal and paper. Her spirituality also informs her recent work in sculpture in which free-formed bronze fragments are arranged into harmonious compositions.
Events
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Talks & Lectures
2024 Annual Lecture: Lindy Lee
Live StreamThu 24 Oct 2024, 6.30pm