Michael Lee 李鴻輝 (b. 1972)

Michael Lee is an artist, curator and publisher based in Berlin and Singapore. He researches urban memory and fiction, especially the contexts and implications of loss. He transforms his observations into objects, diagrams, situations, curations or texts. He has staged solo exhibitions at Künstlerhaus Bethanien (Berlin), Hanart TZ Gallery (Hong Kong), Baba House (Singapore) and Alliance Francaise de Singapour (Singapore). His group exhibition participations include The 3rd Kuandu Biennale 2012, The 2nd Asia Triennial Manchester 2011, The 3rd Singapore Biennale 2011, The 8th Shanghai Biennale 2010, The 4th & 3rd Guangzhou Triennial 2011 & 2008, The 2005 World Exposition (Singapore Pavilion) and International Film & Video Association Film Award & Festival 1997 (co-winner, Experimental category). His curatorial projects include Between, Beside, Beyond: Daniel Libeskind’s Reflections and Key Works 1989-2014 (Singapore Art Museum, 2007), and his editorial projects include the series Corridors: Notes on the Contemporary (published by Studio Bibliothèque with various others, 2013-); Who Cares: 16 Essays on Curating in Asia (co-edited with Alvaro Rodriguez Fominaya, published by Para/Site Art Space, Hong Kong, 2010), and Preoccupations: Things Artists Do Anyway (co-edited with Cornelia Erdmann, published by laiyan projects and Studio Bibliothèque, Hong Kong, 2008). His accolades include the APBF Signature Art Prize 2011 (People’s Choice Award), conferred by the Singapore Art Museum, and the Young Artist Award (Visual Arts) 2005, conferred by the National Arts Council, Singapore. He received his Master and Bachelor of Communication Studies from Nanyang Technological University in 2001 and 1997 respectively.

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2018 | “Installation in Progress”, Curve @ Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
2018 | “Creatif Compleks”, Vitrine, Centre for Contemporary Arts Singapore, Singapore
2014 | “Machine For (Living) Dying In”, Yavuz Fine Art, Singapore 2014 | Moving Forest – Artist in Residency Project, Singapore Tyler Print Institute, Singapore
2013 | “Michael Lee: Some Detours”, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany
2012 | “M-trospective: Michael Lee’s First Decade 2001-2011”, Studio Bibliothèque, Singapore
2012 | “Revision Exercise 002”, Art Stage Singapore, Marina Bay Sands, Singapore
2011 | “Michael Lee”, Chan Hampe Galleries booth, Art Stage Singapore, Marina Bay Sands, Singapore
2010 | “Lost City and Other Stories”, Hanart Square and Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong
2008 | “A Psychotaxonomy of Home”, Baba House, Singapore
2004 | “When a Body Meets a Building”, Alliance Francaise de Singapour, Singapore

Selected Group Exhibitions

2019-2020 | “Suddenly Becoming Visible”, National Gallery Singapore, Singapore
2019 | “ONLY CONNECT: Osaka”, Creative Center Osaka, Osaka, Japan
2019 | “Bridges of Time”: i Light 2019 Bicentennial Edition, Cavenagh Bridge, Singapore
2018 | “Placing Home: Woodlands”, Woodlands Stadium, Singapore
2018 | “Glossary of Common Terms”, Baba House, Singapore
2018 |”Two Houses: Politics and Histories in the Contemporary Art Collections of John Chia and Yeap Lam Yang”, ICA, Singapore
2018 |”Eden”, ZARCH Gallery, Singapore
2017 | “Building Agency: Archifest 2017”, Singapore Botanic Gardens, Singapore
2017 | “Building Agency: Archifest 2017”, Singapore Botanic Gardens, Singapore
2017 | “[Title To Be Confirmed]”, Kunstraum Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany
2017 | “Listening to Architecture”, National Gallery, Singapore
2017 | “Radio Malaya: Abridged Conservations About Art”, NUS Museum, Singapore
2016 | “Unlimited Space: Re-imagination of Everyday Life”, starprojects, Hong Kong
2015 | “Mind the Gap: Mapping the Other”, National Library Board Building, Singapore
2014 | “Once Upon This Island”, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
2014 | “The Part in The Story Where a Part Becomes a Part of Something Else”, Witte de With, Rotterdam, Netherlands
2014 | “[The Machine] Contemplating the Body”, Singapore General Hospital Museum, Singapore
2014 | “The 8th Shenzhen Sculpture Biennale”, OCAT Shenzhen, China
2014 | “Thinking of Landscape: Collection of Yeap Lam Yang”, ICA, Singapore
2013 | “Between Here and Nanyang: Marco Hsu’s Brief History of Malayan Art”, NUS Museum, Singapore
2013 | “Tokyo Art Meeting (IV): Bunny Smash, Design to Touch the World”, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan
2013 | “Resort”, Bangkok Art and Culture Center, Bangkok, Thailand
2012 | “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep: The Paradox of Choice in a Time of Anxiety”, Para/Site Art Space, Hong Kong
2012 | “Safe Place In The Future II”, Jim Thompson Art Center, Bangkok, Thailand
2012 | “The 3rd Kuandu Biennale”, Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei, Taiwan
2011 | “The 2nd Signature Art Prize Finalists Exhibition”, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
2011 | “Utopias: Michael Lee and Bob Matthews”, National Museum, Singapore
2011 | “The 2nd Chungking Youth Art Biennale”, Chungking Art Museum and Museum of Sichuan Fine Arts, Chungking, China
2011 | “The 3rd Singapore Biennale”, Old Kallang Airport, Singapore
2010 | “The 8th Shanghai Biennale”, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China
2010 | “Cheong Soo Pieng: Shock of the New”, The National Art Gallery, Singapore @ Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
2010 | “At the Crossroad”, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan
2009 | “Whose Exhibition is This?”, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan (with Tang Ling Nah)
2009 | “Curating Lab: 100 Objects (Remixed)”, HT Contemporary Space, Singapore
2008 | “A-Z, 26 Locations to Put Everything”, Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong
2008 | “The 3rd Guangzhou Triennial (Independent Projects section)”, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China
2008 | “-bok”, 1aspace, Hong Kong
2007 | “Building Conversations: Michael Lee & Nadia Bhamadhaj”, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
2007 | “city_NET Asia (Singapore Pavillion)”, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea
2007 | “Focus Automatically”, Museum of Suzhou Art & Technology Institute, Suzhou, China
2006 | “Beneath the Pavement: Discovering the City”, S’pore Art Museum, Singapore
2005 | “Asian Traffic (Singapore pavilion)”, Jendela, Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay, Singapore
2005 | “The 2005 World Exposition (Singapore pavilion)”, Aichi, Japan
2004 | “SENI Singapore: Art and the Contemporary”, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
2004 | “VIDEO AS URBAN CONDITION videoPOOL”, Vargas Organisation, London
2004 | “Reconstruction of a City”, St. James Power Station, Singapore
2003 | “Sensitive Parts”, Plastique Kinetic Worms, Singapore
2001 | “Nokia Singapore Art 2001 (Curated section)”, S’pore Art Museum, Singapore
2001 | “Deriving Spaces”, Plastique Kinetic Worms, Singapore

Awards

2011 | APBF Signature Art Prize (People’s Choice Award), Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
2005 | Young Artist Award (Visual Arts), National Arts Council, Singapore
1997 | 1st Prize (Experimental), United Film & Video Association Student Film & Video Competition, PHL, USA (co-awarded with William Phuan & Tan Chee Tat)
1996 | Distinction, United Television Outstanding Video, Singapore (co-awarded with Chong Siew Hong)
1995 | 3rd Prize, All-School Students’ Video Competition, NTU, Singapore
1988 | 1st Prize, Chinese Calligraphy Competition, Gan Eng Seng School, Singapore