LOS ANGELES, CA.- Working across painting, sculpture, photography and film, Maia Ruth Lee has crafted an elegant visual lexicon that takes on the complexities of the self in times of dissonance and globalization that can now be seen at François Ghebaly.

Lee was born in Busan, South Korea, grew up in Kathmandu and Seoul, spent over a decade in New York City, and recently moved to Salida, Colorado. Migration lies at the core of her experience. In her practice, Lee brings this cross-border perspective to bear in works that often evoke wayfinding in the form of maps, atlases, and banners. An underlying interest in language, translation, symbols, and signs runs throughout her work, frequently expressed in her use of India ink, a medium commonly associated with calligraphy.

The body, too, is an enduring concern for Lee, whose bound baggage and textile sculptures metaphorically visualize the accumulations and contours of a life. Navigating universal phenomena like loss and change, Lee's tender, expansive practice embodies journeying itself, giving form to migrations of people, tongues, and ideas.

Maia Ruth Lee (b.1983, Busan, South Korea) lives and works in Salida, Colorado. After receiving her BFA from the Hongik University in Seoul she studied at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver.

Recent solo exhibitions include the MCA Denver; François Ghebaly, Los Angeles; Jack Hanley Gallery, New York, and Eli Ping Frances Perkins Gallery, New York. Lee's work has been featured in prominent recent museum group exhibitions including the 2019 Whitney Biennial and Aspen Art Museum's Mountain/Time. In 2021, she was the recipient of the inaugural Gold Art Prize.