SYDNEY.- Sullivan+Strumpf will soon be ending their presentation of new works from Chinese-Australian artist Lindy Lee, in her major solo exhibition at their Zetland, Sydney, premises. Lindy Lee: A tree more ancient than the forest it stands in which opened earlier this month.

One of Australia’s most influential and highly respected contemporary artists, Lee’s work has, over recent years, moved increasingly into the public sphere, with numerous largescale public commissions – both national and international, focused on creating spaces of belonging and community.

Lindy Lee: A tree more ancient than the forest it stands in, presents a rare opportunity to experience this iconic artist’s work in a more intimate gallery setting, her latest body including new sculptural forms in steel, bronze and wood, in addition to works on paper.

Lee’s multi-disciplinary practice explores connections between humanity, nature, and the cosmos; her process one of co- creation with the universe, requiring an intimate collaboration with the elemental materials of fire, water, metal, wood, from which her artworks are forged.

Informed by an ever-evolving sense of self and the philosophies of Daoism and Ch’an (Zen) Buddhism, her diverse works are renowned for translating and transmuting deeply personal experience to the universal, bringing viewers a sense of wonder and of intimate connection with all existence.

In a career spanning more than 40 years, Lee has exhibited in over 150 exhibitions around Australia and internationally; and created more than 40 public artworks and large-scale sculptural commissions including One Bright Pearl, Blackburn Gardens, Woollahra Municipal Council (2022), Eye of Infinity, Peak Tram Central Terminus, Hong Kong (2022), Being Swallowed by the Milky Way, Queen’s Wharf, Brisbane (2023), Secret World of a Starlight Ember, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (2020), Life of Stars, Art Gallery of South Australia (2018), The Garden of Cloud and Stone, Chinatown, Sydney (2018), and Life of Stars: Tenderness of Rain, Zheng Zhou Cultural Centre, China (2016).

In 2024, the artist’s immersive public sculpture, Ouroboros will open at the National Gallery of Australia and will be the largest commission in the Gallery’s history.Lindy Lee (born 1954, Brisbane) is one of Australia’s most influential and respected contemporary artists. Since the early 1980s she has explored ideas around connection, family, history, time and personal identity through multi-disciplinary works that draw on her Australian and Chinese heritage. A key influence on the artist’s practice are the philosophies of Daoism and Ch’an (Zen) Buddhism, which explore the connections between humanity and nature. Over the last decade Lee’s extensive practice has moved into the public realm creating spaces of belonging and community.

Lee has exhibited in over 150 exhibitions in Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and USA. Recent exhibitions include The Spheres, Brisbane Festival (2022); A world of dew, and within every dewdrop a world of struggle, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne (2022); Love letters between the rain and the fire, Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney (2021); Moon in a Dew Drop, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (2020-2021, national tour 2021-2022); Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 to Now, National Gallery of Australia (2020); Divided Worlds: Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia (2018); From Will to Form: TarraWarra Biennial 2018, TarraWarra Museum of Art; Kalpa Fires, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne (2018); The Seamless Tomb, Sullivan + Strumpf, Sydney (2017); Beyond Words, Art Gallery of New South Wales (2017); Versus Rodin: Bodies Across Space and Time, Art Gallery of South Australia (2017); The Dark of Absolute Freedom, University of Queensland Art Museum (2014); Marking Time, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (2012); Birth and Death, Campbelltown Arts Centre (2007); Birth and Death, Sydney Opera House (2004) and No Up, No Down, I am the Ten Thousand Things, Art Gallery of New South Wales (1995).

Lee has created 40 public artworks and large-scale sculptural commissions in Australia and internationally, including Being Swallowed by the Milky Way (2023), Eye of Infinity, Peak Tram Central Terminus, Hong Kong (2022); Queen’s Wharf, Brisbane; One bright Pearl (2022), Sydney, Secret World of a Starlight Ember, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia; Life of Stars, Art Gallery of South Australia; The Garden of Cloud and Stone, Chinatown, Sydney and Life of Stars: Tenderness of Rain, Zheng Zhou Cultural Centre, China. In 2024, the artist’s major commission, Ourobora will open at the National Gallery of Australia.

The major survey, Moon in a Dew Drop, at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia in 2020 – 2021 spanned four- decades of Lee’s career and brought together key loans alongside re-creations of significant early works and large-scale new commissions. The exhibition is currently touring nationally, to museums and galleries in the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania and Western Australia.

Lee is represented in numerous major public and private collections, including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery of South Australia, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, and the Queensland Art Gallery ӏ Gallery of Modern Art.

She is closely connected with Australia’s contemporary art community and has made a significant contribution to the development of the cultural sector in this country. Lee was a founding member of 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art in Sydney and has held prominent leadership roles in cultural organisations including President of the Asian Australian Artists Association, Deputy Chair of the Visual Arts and Craft Fund, Australia Council, Trustee of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and a board member of Artspace, Sydney and the Australian Centre of Photography, Sydney.

In 2001 Lee received her PhD in Fine Art from the University of New South Wales. She was a senior lecturer at Sydney College of the Arts, Sydney University for over 20 years, nurturing the development of numerous artists.

A prominent and prolific Chinese-Australian artist, Lee has played a critical role in visualising the experience of Chinese and wider Asian diaspora communities in a country that has historically whitewashed its multiculturalism; and created important avenues of representation and support for artists of culturally diverse heritage.

In both official and unofficial roles, she has been an important mentor and adviser for younger generations of artists. Lindy Lee is not only one of Australia’s most influential and respected living artists but also one of this country’s most important contemporary cultural role models.