Invited artist: THANIEL ION LEE
IRON FLOWER
This work is a meditation on both the delicate nature of nature and the strength of steel and how one can affect the others growth. For example over time and space the perceived weakness of nature can break the perceived strength of steel. The aesthetic inspiration of this work is mostly twisty iron fences that fill the older parts of louisville, and how even though time and nature have damaged them they retain their beauty .
Born in 1976 in Portsmouth, Virginia, Thaniel Lee lives and works in Louisville, KY. He is a conceptual artist who explores ideas of the body through darkly humorous and macabre drawings, text, installation, photography, and sound art.
His work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including the Santa Barbara Center for Art, Science and Technology, Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft (Louisville, KY), Lexington Art League (Lexington, KY), J.B. Speed Art Museum (Louisville, KY), Caladan Gallery (Cambridge, MA), and Indiana University, Southeast (New Albany, Indiana). He exhibited in the Seattle Erotic Art Festival in 2007 and the Resound Festival in Falmouth, Cornwall UK in 2011.
In 2007, Lee was the recipient of an Artistic Development Grant from Very Special Arts of Indiana where he also served as Teaching Artist-in-Residence. Lee studied Fine Art at Indiana University, Southeast, Lee’s work appears in several public and private collections, including the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft and the Collection of Larry Shapin and Ladonna Nicolas.
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