John Lees
Lunar Chorine, 2017-18
Ink, graphite and white out on paper
11 1/4 x 9 1/2 inches
JL16279
Trio, 2017-18
Ink, whiteout on paper
9 1/2 x 11 1/4 inches
JL16278
Three Women, 2017-18
Ink, graphite and white out on paper
5 1/4 x 11 inches
JL16277
White Towel, 2017-18
Pencil, ink, watercolor and white out on paper
5 1/4 x 8 1/4 inches
JL16276
Glimpse of Woman in Woods, 2006-2007
Oil on canvas
9 x 8 x 7/8 inches
JL16269
Seated woman, 2018
Oil on paper mounted on canvas
9 1/4 x 8 1/2 x 1 1/16 inches
JL16268
The Lunar Chorine, 2018
Oil on panel
10 3/4 x 7 x 7/8 inches
JL16267
Barrymore (my days in the sun), 2016
Oil on canvas
9 x 18 x 3/4 inches
JL16201
The Lunar Chorine, 2015
OIl on canvas
18 x 14 x 1 inches
JL16200
Two Women, 2017-18
Ink, watercolor and white out on paper
8 1/4 x 5 1/4 inches
JL16275
Caryatid in the Snow (Ruth in her Chesterfield), 2018
Oil on canvas
26 3/4 x 8 x 3/4 inches
JL16274
Woman Leaning Over, 2018
Oil on canvas
8 1/2 x 11 1/2 inches
JL16273
Ghost Trio, 2017
Oil on canvas
20 x 20 x 7/8 inches
JL16272
Two Women (L shape Border), 2017
Oil on paper mounted on canvas
12 1/2 x 9 x 1 1/4 inches
JL16270
Trio, 2017
Oil on canvas
15 1/4 x 17 x 1 inches
JL16271
John Lees
Untitled, 3 Figures, 2017
Graphite and acrylic on paper
9 1/2 x 11 1/2 in.
JL16199
Betty Cuningham Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of new paintings and drawings by John Lees, March 29 – May 6, 2018. This will be the artist’s fifth solo show at the Gallery, located at 15 Rivington Street. The artist will be present for an opening reception on Wednesday, April 4th, 6 – 8PM.
The exhibition is comprised of 20 paintings (the largest of which, Ghost Trio, is 20 x 20 inches) and 6 drawings, all recently completed. Characteristically, Lees spends years working and reworking his paintings and drawings, often leaving a written diary on the front or back of the work as a physical reminder of the time spent. In these recent paintings and drawings, Lees sands down the surface, incorporates brighter color and introduces a more complex narrative into his work. He no longer concentrates on a single image: a person, a hill, a stream or his childhood home. In Trio, there are three figures all in different states of (un)dress, one in the shower, one wrapped in a towel and the other fully dressed. Similarly, in Lunar Chorine – a subject repeated in several works – there is a conversation going on between the figures: a female figure in a dancing costume dominates, while a large man hides in the shadows. The players are anonymous and the narratives ambiguous, but, characteristic to Lees, all are drawn from an experience buried deep in his subconscious.
Lees is the recipient of numerous awards and grants, including the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Hassam, Speicher, Betts, and Symons Purchase Fund Award; the Francis J. Greenburger Award; the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Grant; and the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship Grant. His work can be found in a host of public institutions, most notably the Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit, MI; the Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, MA; The Kemper Collection, Kansas City, MO; the Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA; the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; and The New Museum, New York, NY.
John Lees was born in 1943 in Denville, NJ. He received his BFA and MFA from the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles, CA. He has been exhibiting in New York since 1977 and has been an instructor at the New York Studio School since 1988. He lives and works in upstate New York.
The exhibition will remain on view through Sunday, May 6th 2018.
"Painting and Meaning” featuring Eric Elliott, Zoey Frank, John Lees, Ying Li, Ruth Miller Forge, Clintel Steed, and facilitated by Jordan Wolfson, co-presented by Sugarlft Gallery and the New York Studio School, recorded on Wednesday, September 20, 2023.