Kerry Ann Lee is a visual artist, designer, and scholar in design at

Massey University Massey University () is a Public university, public research university in New Zealand that provides internal and distance education. The university has campuses in Auckland, Palmerston North, and Wellington. Data from Universities New Zealand ...

College of Creative Arts, in

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

Practice

Kerry Ann Lee's art and design practice is rooted in her experience of being a New Zealander of Chinese descent, and frequently explores these cultural intersections. This includes topics such as Chinese settlement in the 19th century, particularly the establishment of

Chinatown Chinatown ( zh, t=唐人街) is the catch-all name for an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa, O ...

s and Cantonese urban diaspora communities in New Zealand. Lee is also known for her independent publishing work, especially

zine A zine ( ; short for ''magazine'' or ''fanzine'') is, as noted on Merriam-Webster’s official website, a magazine that is a “noncommercial often homemade or online publication usually devoted to specialized and often unconventional subject ...

s, including ''Help, My Snowman’s Burning'', ''Celebretard'' and ''Permanent Vacation''. Her practice frequently employs collage. Lee has undertaken international residencies in China, Taiwan, US, Mexico and Australia and exhibits regularly in New Zealand. Lee's 2017 solo exhibition, ''Fruits in the Backwater'' at

Pātaka Art + Museum Pātaka Museum of Arts and Cultures, often stylised as Pātaka Art + Museum, is a municipal museum and art gallery in Porirua City, New Zealand. Te Marae o Te Umu Kai o Hau is the name of the building where Pātaka is located and opened in 1998 ...

explores notions of identity and place, with juxtaposition of Chinese and New Zealand cultural signifiers a central theme. In December 2018, her installation ''Return to Skyland'' opened within the ''Terracotta Warriors: Guardians of Immortality'' exhibition at

Te Papa The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum and is located in Wellington. Usually known as Te Papa (Māori language, Māori for 'Waka huia, the treasure box'), it opened in 1998 after the merging of the Nation ...

. Lee holds a master's degree from Massey University, with a thesis on the settlement of Chinese in New Zealand, through which she "interrogates the transformation of Cantonese settlers into Chinese New Zealanders through illustration design".

Career

Lee held a senior lecturer and researcher position at

Otago Polytechnic Otago Polytechnic is a public Education in New Zealand#Tertiary education, New Zealand tertiary education institute, centred in Dunedin with additional campuses in Cromwell, New Zealand, Cromwell and Auckland. Otago Polytechnic provides career-f ...

School of Design and is currently a senior lecturer at

College of Creative Arts. Lee has held artist-in-residence positions at island6 Art Centre, Shanghai (September 2009), and Visible City, a collaborative live art project hosted by the City of

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

as part of the

Melbourne Fringe Festival The Melbourne Fringe Festival is an annual independent arts festival in Melbourne, Australia, usually over three weeks from late September to early October. Held since 1982, the Festival includes a wide variety of art forms, including theatre, co ...

(October 2010). Lee was the creative director of the Asian Aotearoa Arts Huì (AAAH2018), a public festival and national gathering that celebrated "diverse expressions of ‘Asianness’ in Aotearoa in the Arts."

Life

Lee is a third-generation Chinese New Zealander; her forebears arrived in

Otago Otago (, ; ) is a regions of New Zealand, region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island and administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local go ...

, New Zealand in the 1930s. She was born in

, where her family has lived since the late 1940s; her parents ran the Gold Coin Cafe at 296 Willis Street from 1978 to 1986. The cafe was referenced in her installation ''The Unavailable Memory of Gold Coin Cafe'', at

Enjoy Gallery Enjoy Contemporary Art Space is a Contemporary art, contemporary art space in Cuba Street, Wellington, Cuba Street arts area of Wellington, New Zealand. Enjoy was founded in 2000 by artists Ciaran Begley, Ros Cameron and Rachel Smithies as an art ...

in 2013 and Pātaka Art + Museum in 2015. Lee studied design in Wellington. She received a

Master of Design A Master of Design (MDes, M.Des. or M.Design) is a postgraduate academic master degree in the field of Design awarded by several academic institutions around the world. The degree level has different equivalencies; some MDes are equivalent to Maste ...

(MDes) from Massey University, where her thesis project was the book ''Home Made: Picturing Chinese Settlement in New Zealand.'' Lee is a DJ under the alias Croque Madame. She is also known for her interest in punk music and work with self-published fanzines.

Awards

* 2014: RATA Award for Excellence in Teaching, Massey University, College of Creative Arts. * 2012: Otago Polytechnic Inspiring Research Award. * 2007: Asia New Zealand Emerging Researcher Award. * June 2009:

Fulbright Award The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people o ...

to attend the Summer Residency Program at the

School of Visual Arts The School of Visual Arts New York City (SVA NYC) is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design. History This school was started by Silas ...

(SVA) in New York City.

Exhibitions

* ''Fruits in the Backwater'',

, 27 August 2017 – 22 January 2018 * ''(Un)conditional I'' (group show),

The Physics Room The Physics Room is a non-commercial contemporary art gallery in Christchurch, New Zealand, described as "one of the country's best-known contemporary experiential art spaces". It is primarily funded by Creative New Zealand, one of four contempo ...

, 5–29 April 2018 * ''In Praise of Weird Wonders'', Bartley + Company Art, Wellington, 2017 * ''Foreign Correspondence'', Whitespace Contemporary, 2017 * ''Da Shi Jie/ The Great World: Shanghai Works 2009-2010'' ��世界：2009-2010 创作于上海 Toi Pöneke Gallery, Wellington, 29 April – 20 May 2011 * ''AM PARK'', am art space, 6 Xiangshan Road, Shanghai, China, 7–20 July 2010 * ''Home Made: Picturing Chinese Settlement in New Zealand'', Toi Pōneke Gallery, Wellington, 31 July – 22 August 2008

References

External links

''Fruits in the Backwater'' exhibition information on the Pātaka website

Who Arted with Aimee Ralfini: Kerry Ann Lee interview on 95bFM
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Kerry Ann New Zealand artists 1979 births Living people Academic staff of Massey University Massey University alumni