At initially look, these failed to fairly look like Mike Lee works. The colour palette is there, that nearly technological precision is there, like electronic prints hand-painted. But what made use of to be extra figurative has develop into illusions of lifestyle, a hint of a figure but ghostly. It is practically as if he is at a struggle with his resources, to understand what to display and what to depart to an creativity. The results are thrilling for an artist with a masterful hand and ingenuity in his method for years now.
“Gaming society was a massive aspect of my adolescence and a kind of escape,” Lee states. “As a kid, the fascination with war was tied to a level of fantasy and exhilaration, but approaching adulthood I formulated a superior comprehension of the legitimate implications. The increase of the online and access to popular information delivered me an perception to the immense catastrophes as perfectly as the discrepancies of the media’s encapsulation of actuality.”
His solo show, No Man’s Land, on view at Half Gallery in NYC, feels confident and delberate in his new concentrate on area and tale. It is really a silent nod to conflicts in lifetime and in politics, also an being familiar with that humanity has shifted in excess of the class of the past 3 yrs. Lee is up for the challenge of the minute. —Evan Pricco