Alex Lee Barbera Face 2 (2004) Dreamland Blue Series, acrylic paint and magazine page in 11"x14" frame

Alex Lee Ferragamo Face (2003) Dreamland Blue Series, acrylic paint and magazine page in 11"x14" frame

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Alex Lee Jacobs Face (2004) Dreamland Blue Series, acrylic paint and magazine page in 11"x14" frame

This is another follow up to my earlier post describing our visit to the Riviera Gallery in Williamsburg. These are images of three of Alex Lee's works now in the group show there.

Lee has written about an experience which describes some of the inspiration for the imagery he uses:

While I was living in Taipei, Taiwan, in 1996, and staying at friends of my parents', I noticed that my hosts' collection of empty frames displayed in their living room and bedrooms. Usually sitting on a buffet or end table, these would be regular desk-size wood or metal frames, pre-fabricated for the mass-market, similar to the kind one would find anywhere at any department and discount stores in the US. These frames would have a plexiglass or glass inside them as well as a sheet of paper on which would be printed a generic stock image, acting as an example for what could be inserted inside of the picture frame. The image would resemble a stock-photograph of kind, depicting a happy couple in embrace, a little boy and his dog, a little girl holding a bouquet of flowers; in short, the archetypes of what the west considers a relevant, joyfull moment fit for remembrance and display in a home or work environment. Upon interrogation, I learnt that what I considered empty frames, they thought embodied the epitome of what the West had to offer, an ideal of happiness and wealth as projected by the image inside of the frame. Just as they would hang auspicious Chinesecharacters calligraphed on red papers in their home, they displayed these Western photo frames, as icons of social wealth.

[images furnished by the artist]