Kerry Ann Lee

Kerry Ann Lee's art and design practice is rooted in her experience of being a New Zealander of Chinese descent, and frequently explores these cultural intersections.[1] This includes topics such as Chinese settlement in the 19th century, particularly the establishment of Chinatowns[1] and Cantonese urban diaspora communities in New Zealand.[2] Lee is also known for her independent publishing work, especially zines, including Help, My Snowman’s Burning, Celebretard and Permanent Vacation.[3] Her practice frequently employs collage.[4] Lee has undertaken international residencies in China, Taiwan, US, Mexico and Australia and exhibits regularly in New Zealand.[5] Lee's 2017 solo exhibition, Fruits in the Backwater at Pātaka Art + Museum explores notions of identity and place,[6] with juxtaposition of Chinese and New Zealand cultural signifiers a central theme. In December 2018, her installation Return to Skyland opened within the Terracotta Warriors: Guardians of Immortality exhibition at Te Papa.[7]

Lee holds a master's degree from Massey University, with a thesis on the settlement of Chinese in New Zealand, through which she "interrogates the transformation of Cantonese settlers into Chinese New Zealanders through illustration design".[8]

Lee held a senior lecturer and researcher position at Otago Polytechnic School of Design[1] and is currently a senior lecturer at Massey University College of Creative Arts.[9]

Lee has held artist-in-residence positions at island6 Art Centre, Shanghai (September 2009),[10] and Visible City, a collaborative live art project hosted by the City of Melbourne as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival (October 2010).[1]

Lee was the creative director of the Asian Aotearoa Arts Huì (AAAH2018), a public festival and national gathering that celebrated "diverse expressions of ‘Asianness’ in Aotearoa in the Arts."[11]

Lee is a third-generation Chinese New Zealander; her forebears arrived in Otago, New Zealand in the 1930s.[12] She was born in Wellington, where her family has lived since the late 1940s; her parents ran the Gold Coin Cafe at 296 Willis Street from 1978 to 1986.[12][13] The cafe was referenced in her installation The Unavailable Memory of Gold Coin Cafe, at Enjoy Gallery in 2013 and Pātaka Art + Museum in 2015.[12]

Lee studied design in Wellington.[12] She received a Master of Design (MDes) from Massey University, where her thesis project was the book Home Made: Picturing Chinese Settlement in New Zealand.[14]

Lee is a DJ under the alias Croque Madame.[15] She is also known for her interest in punk music[4] and work with self-published fanzines.[10]

• 2014: RATA Award for Excellence in Teaching, Massey University, College of Creative Arts.[16]
• 2012: Otago Polytechnic Inspiring Research Award.[16]
• 2007: Asia New Zealand Emerging Researcher Award.[1]
• June 2009: Fulbright Award to attend the Summer Residency Program at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York City.[1]

• Fruits in the Backwater, Pātaka Art + Museum, 27 August 2017 – 22 January 2018[6]
• (Un)conditional I (group show), The Physics Room, 5–29 April 2018[17]
• In Praise of Weird Wonders, Bartley + Company Art, Wellington, 2017[10]
• Foreign Correspondence, Whitespace Contemporary, 2017
• Da Shi Jie/ The Great World: Shanghai Works 2009-2010 [大世界：2009-2010 创作于上海], Toi Pöneke Gallery, Wellington, 29 April – 20 May 2011[18]
• AM PARK, am art space, 6 Xiangshan Road, Shanghai, China, 7–20 July 2010[19]
• Home Made: Picturing Chinese Settlement in New Zealand, Toi Pōneke Gallery, Wellington, 31 July – 22 August 2008[20]

• Fruits in the Backwater exhibition information on the Pātaka website
• Who Arted with Aimee Ralfini: Kerry Ann Lee interview on 95bFM