Bovey Lee takes paper cutting to a whole new level, transforming this ancient Chinese folk art into a social and personal statement. Born in Hong Kong where she earned her BA in fine arts, Bovey Lee moved to United States continuing her studies in painting (University of California at Berkeley) and digital arts (Pratt Institute in New York).
Bovey Lee - Office Tornado
Currently based in Pittsburgh, the artist started crafting paper cutouts in 2005 choosing this tradition as it best combines her skills, creativity and personality, and frees her to create these dramatic stories, as she herself admits. Working with sustainable and cultural significant materials such as rice paper with silk backing, Bovey Lee tells stories of “power, sacrifice, and survival” with her intricate, stunning pieces of art.
She draws inspiration from her cultural background to the boiling present of economic and political crisis, natural and ecological disasters to little childhood dramas. The laborious creative process consists of hand drawing, digital rendering, and hand cutting the resulting image for several hours with an X-acto knife.
The artworks of Bovey Lee been exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York; Museum Bellerive, Zurich, Switzerland; National Glass Centre, Sunderland, UK; Museum of Fine Arts, Beijing, China; Fukuoka Museum of Art, Japan; Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong and at the Museum Rijswijk, The Netherlands among others.
