Lee holds a BFA, cum laude, from Virginia Commonwealth University. Her work has been exhibited nationally including solo exhibits at the Arlington Arts Center, GRACE in Reston, Virginia, and Hillyer Art Space in Washington, D.C. Lee's work has been featured in publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The American Prospect, The Atlantic, Fresh Paint, and YVI Magazine. Her works are part of the permanent collections of the Washington D.C. Art Bank, the Rosslyn Renaissance Business Improvement District, and Hickok Cole Architects. Online, her work has been presented at DailyServing, Humble Arts Foundation, Murmur DC, The Truth of Beauty, Today and Tomorrow, i like this art, Beautiful Decay, DesignBoom, The Jealous Curator, and many others.
You can learn more about Lee's work at: https://www.wpadc.org/artist/lee-gainer
ARTIST STATEMENT:
"I create works that examine how memories are constructed and recalled. Snapshots of gatherings, celebrations, and other notable moments are translated into detailed line drawings and then overlaid to create semi-abstract compositions. These new images display a somewhat mysterious yet subtlety familiar space that holds a collision of diluted symbolism and traces of nostalgia. The source photographs are the results of our attempts to record an experience. They create a catalyst for recall. However, the recollection in our mind is unique. By layering multiple images, I represent the phases I believe are used to develop these memories: the perception manufactured from expectation, the details recorded from experience, and the incompletely distinct recollection. The integrated result that becomes our memory is influenced and over written by different bits of information created from each of these steps. My works leverage this internal process by using visual insinuation to simultaneously present the individually meaningful moment and the universally shared familiar experience."