Biography, Artist Statement and CV
Biography
Mindy Lee (born Bolton, Lancashire; based in London) is a painter, curator, and teacher. She graduated with an MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art. Lee has exhibited internationally across the UK, Europe, Asia, and Canada. Her solo exhibitions include the Jerwood Project Space, Perimeter Space, and Portsmouth Art Space, alongside an upcoming solo show at the Salford Museum and Art Gallery in 2027.
Her extensive group exhibitions include Amici Studios (Hastings), Bay Arts (Cardiff), Thames-Side Studios (London), China Academy of Arts (China), Freie Internationale Akademie (Frankfurt), Galeria OFF Piotrkowska (Poland), Transition Gallery (London), Sluice Biennale (London), Folkestone Triennial Fringe, 54th Venice Biennale Fringe, and Danielle Arnaud Gallery (London).
Lee’s work is featured in several prominent publications, including the Contemporary British Drawing artist interviews (2021), Journal of Contemporary Painting (2019), Assemblage Magazine (2019), Ghost Changing Room (2019), Fad Magazine (2016), On Innards (2015), and Garageland Magazine (2015, 2011, 2007). She currently holds the position of Head of Art and Gallery Curator at The Blyth Music and Arts Centre, Imperial College London, and is a member of the artist-led group Contemporary British Painting.
Artist Statement
I paint fleeting interactions between my family members. It’s the strange, “hang on”, double-take moments that catch my attention. They offer unmasked glimpses into the complex bonds we form through care, love and everyday challenges.
Connection strategies I’ve learnt in response to my son’s ADHD inform my practice: focusing in, breaking things down, using compressed language, and allowing for growth, movement, and drifts. Briefly sharing, needs only the bare bones of family memories, fragments, so I use a reduced palette and truncated forms.
I paint quickly, finding images whilst the paint dries. Paint transforms body parts, as they shift then settle, slipping in and out of focus. As figures emerge and dissipate, they’re punctuated with local colour to pinpoint the viewer’s attention. Paintings grow, creating seemingly hybrid images across transparent silk layers. I allow time so as images reveal slowly, partially and unevenly.
Embroidery hoops carry a history of slow stitching and women’s work—acting as a temporary support for a transitioning domestic activity. Their embracing grip settles surfaces. In these paintings, the hoop is repurposed and absorbed into the immediacy of the action, cropping to its centre like a focusing lens.
Silk breaks out of the edge, hinting at a larger picture and allowing for a sense of the indeterminate. My intention is to create something that remains unresolved, inviting connection through interpretation.
