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Christine, a Korean American woman with black framed glasses and a dark blue and white striped shirt, smiles at the camera. She is in front of a wooden wall.

Photo by Blake Lockard.

Artists

Christine Lee

Interdisciplinary Artist and Designer

Tempe, Arizona

I encounter materials in a variety of conditions and explore them to different degrees, ranging from minimally invasive, where the material may not need to be manipulated at all, to a complete processing of the material where it is broken apart into its elements.”

Christine Lee has an interdisciplinary practice encompassing art, design, and sustainability. Lee draws from a variety of investigation methods where intuitive direct-hand manipulation, traditional craft processes, and computer-aided technology are the central part of her research tools to seek out the patterns between seemingly disparate elements and systems. Her natural inclination to salvage and a deep appreciation for the environment continue to inform her selection of fiber-based, non-toxic, or sustainable media, as well as materials considered to be mundane, surplus, or disregarded, for use in the creation of sculpture, functional work, and installations. Her practice also includes engineering and science-based collaborations.

Lee received her MFA in Furniture Design/Woodworking from San Diego State University and her BS from the University of Wisconsin. She was a Senior Sustainability Scholar of the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability at Arizona State University, where she also taught in the School of Art of the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts. She has participated in numerous residencies at Djerassi, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Workshop Residence, and as the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s Artist-at-Sea. Her work has been exhibited at Center for Art in Wood, Traver Gallery in Seattle, San Francisco Museum of Craft and Design, the Museum of Arts and Design, the Bellevue Arts Museum, the Society of Arts and Crafts, the Society of Contemporary Craft, the Aspen Art Museum, the Racine Art Museum, and the ASU Art Museum.

Donor -The Maxwell/Hanrahan Awards in Craft are supported by the Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation.

This artist page was last updated on: 08.20.2024

Thin, flat pieces of off-white painted wood are stacked together on a white background in shapes that look like stacks of books at the floor of the piece, then groups of cells in the middle. The rows of wood at the top of the stack are evocative of sharp craggy mountains.

Stacking Order by Christine Lee, 2019. Wood, paint, 8 × 8 × 2 feet. Site-specific installation at the Center for Art in Wood, Philadelphia, PA.

Photo courtesy of the artist.

Five parallel panels weave over and under two panels that are perpendicular to them. A smaller photo in the upper right corner shows a full view of the artwork, a monochromatic off-white and otherwise smooth-faced slender side table. The panels make up part of the right side of the table.

Interwoven Table by Christine Lee, 2013. Wood particles, recycled fibers, 30 × 72 × 26 inches. Installation at the Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco, CA.

Photo courtesy of the artist.

An overhead view of a tan-colored sun hat made out of woven straw. The straw that makes up the hat remains untrimmed and a large mat of straw similar in size to the hat itself extends from one side of the brim.

Working Hat Ripples by Christine Lee, 2018. Rush straw, 40 × 25 × 10 inches. Installation at the Arizona Jewish Historical Society; Jewish Heritage Center, Phoenix, AZ.

Photo by Ryan Parra.