I'm interested in the moment our relationship to something familiar changes.
My work begins with recognizable images and objects because they give us a shared point of reference. Through removal, interruption, and reframing, I invite viewers to look again. It's there that meaning begins to emerge, not from the object itself, but through our encounter with it.
As a sophomore in college, I stood in front of Frank Stella's The Marriage of Reason and Squalor, II. It’s little more than black lines on raw canvas, but somehow it moved me to tears.
That experience changed my life, and left me with a question I've been investigating ever since:
How could something so visually simple create such a profound emotional experience?
Stephen Eric Lee (E.LEE) is a conceptual artist working across painting, sculpture, installation, and public art. Through recognizable imagery, humor, and participation, his work creates accessible points of entry that often lead to unexpected moments of reflection.
Lee received his BFA from Millikin University in 2002 and spent two decades living and working in Chicago before returning to his hometown of Normal, Illinois. Alongside his studio practice, he has completed large-scale public art commissions throughout the United States, Europe, and Japan, creating murals that transform everyday spaces into places of shared experience.
His work has been exhibited internationally and is held in private collections around the world. Whether creating a painting, installation, mural, or conceptual project, Lee's practice is guided by a single question: How can something visually simple create a profound emotional experience?