ARTIST BIO

Ahree Lee received her B.A. from Yale University in English literature and a M.F.A. in graphic design from Yale School of Art. Commissions include the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, the 01SJ Biennial, the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, the International Short Film Festival in Leuven, Belgium; the International Festival of Video Art of Casablanca and the Sundance Channel. Her Webby-nominated video Me was shown by Steve Jobs as a demo for YouTube on Apple TV, is in the permanent collection of the Museum of the Moving Image, New York, and currently has over 9 million views. Lee’s honors include an artist residency at Santa Fe Art Institute; a Rema Hort Mann Emerging Artist Award nomination; an Artist Fellowship Grant in film and video from the state of Connecticut; and an artistic career development grant from Asian American Renaissance. Lee lives and works in Los Angeles with her daughter and husband, Nathan Melsted, an electronic musician, who composes musical scores for much of Lee’s work.

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Part of a weaving series in progress, Motherboard Study – A4, compares the functional and aesthetic qualities of Bauhaus weavings and computer motherboards. The women of the Bauhaus weaving workshop elevated their craft from being merely aesthetic “pictures made of wool” to designing highly functional materials meeting the requirements of industrial production. Conversely, computer motherboards, whose layouts are optimized for the most efficient connections between components, are etched and emblazoned with copper and gold, materials considered decorative in other contexts, and are arranged in patterns evoking classic Bauhaus weavings.