
Ryan Andrew Lee
Artist’s Statement
The video diptych contrasts living portraits of five Aboriginal people from the Wonnarua Nation with drone shots of the vast Muswellbrook coal mines, which are situated in the heart of the Wonnarua Nation. The frame in which the video work sits is an 1820's antique Victorian era influenced design which correlates with the exact time period that European settlers first reached Muswellbrook, Wonnarua Country. The symbolic frame also metaphorically acknowledges the paradox of living in and between the two worlds and addresses a subtle hypocrisy; the act of critiquing Western systems although at the same time living and breathing them.
Awards
2021 Footscray Art Prize Finalist
2021 Reimagine Art Prize Finalist
2021 Wyndham Art Prize Finalist
2021 Lethbridge Landscape Prize Highly Commended
2021 YICCA Young International Contest of Contemporary Art, Art Association APS Moho
2020 Vasse Art Award: Highly Commended
2020 Gosford Emerging Award (finalist), Gosford Regional Art Gallery, NSW
Exhibitions
Selected Group Exhibitions
2021 Footscray Art Prize Exhibition, curated by Amy McMurtrie, Footscray Community Arts Centre
2021 Wyndham Art Prize 2021, curated by Megan Evans, Wyndham Art Gallery, VIC
2021 Illuminate Festival Adelaide x ANAT New Light, Wayville, SA
2021 FELTdark x AGSA Tarnanthi Festival, curated by Sally Craven, FELTspace Adelaide
2021 Reimagine Art Prize, curated by Kathryn Beattie, Wallarobba Art and Culture Centre, Hornsby, NSW
2021 Evaporate, curated by Kyra Kum-Sing, Boomali Aboriginal Artists Co-operative, Leichhardt, NSW
2021 Construction/Development, curated by Kalanjay Dhir, Pari ARI Gallery Sydney
2021 Lethbridge Landscape Prize, curated by Simone Linssen, Lethbridge Gallery Paddington, QLD
2021 COOEE: Come Here, curated by Mirri Leven, Cooee Art Redfern
2021 11 Under Thirty, curated by Erika and Paulin Plumb, New Artisans Gallery Milsons Point
2021 HOME, curated by Katherine Marmaras, Geelong Art Space
2021 Vasse Art Awards, curated by Jo Pell, Vasse Gallery WA
2021 Let's Go Online, Express Impress Arts Collective London (Online)
2021 BAMM Art Fair, curated by Sarah Vickerman, Bank Art Museum Moree
2021 Creation In Isolation, curated by Charlotte Hilder, Gosford Regional Gallery, Touring
2020 Emerging 2020, curated by Sarah Samild, Gosford Regional Gallery
2019 Call It What You Want To, curated by Vasili Papathanasopoulos, Sydney Fringe Festival
Selected Solo Exhibitons
2021 Westpace Collingwood, Victoria, curated by Andy Butler
2021 Cool Change Contemporary Perth, curated by Miranda Johnson
2021 Maitland Regional Gallery, curated by Anne McLaughlin
2021 Lismore Regional Gallery, curated by Fiona Fraser
2021 Culture at Work Gallery Pyrmont, curated by Sherryl Ryan
2021 Gloucester Gallery, curated by Gigi Campa
2020 Projects 107 Redfern, curated by Jackson Morphett Field
Selected International Group and Solo Exhibitions
2021 STTW Straight Through The Wall 2031 NYC, New York City
2021 Circle, Curated by Leejin Kim, CICA Museum Gimpo South Korea
2021 YICCA Young International Contest of Contemporary Art, Art Association APS Moho
2021 Let's Go Online, Express Impress Arts Collective London
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