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Erica Reed Lee

  • Objects
    • Paintings
    • Works on Paper
    • Artist Books
    • Collaborations
  • Projects
    • Here & There
    • Open Library
    • From the Cave
    • Gratitude Circle
  • Curatorial Work
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    • Gathering What's Tangible
  • Words & Images
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Second Year MFA Updates

May 09, 2025
Second Year MFA Updates

Before my final year begins, here is an update on my MFA at the University of Houston.

In the studio I continued working on, with, and around my stuffed paintings.

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Tags: Recent Work, Mira Schendel, University of Houston, MFA, MFAH

Spread from July 2024 Book. Watercolor and wax pencil on rice paper.

Notes on Fall 2024

January 14, 2025

I cannot believe that it is 2025, that it is January, that the Fall 2024 semester has come and gone, that I am another year older, and that I, with my partner, have started a family.

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Tags: Bookbinding, Recent Work, MFA, Motherhood, Book arts, Artists Books, Drawing, University of Houston

Fieldwork Marfa, May 2024.

Fieldwork Marfa

September 01, 2024

This past May I drove to Marfa to study art theory with Abinadi Meza and my fellow graduate students for two weeks.

This trip to West Texas would be different from my previous two- or three-night stays. With two weeks, I had time to settle, wander, and reflect.

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Tags: Marfa, University of Houston, Recent Work, Drawing, Deleuze, Walter De Maria

My studio at UH Spring 2024

Reporting back after one year

May 07, 2024

The fall was spent with wood fabrication and getting settled in my new studio space (see previous post). In the spring, I followed through with some of the experiments I had begun in the later part of the fall semester. I also took my first two college credit art history courses.

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Tags: MFA, JG Ballard, Nancy Spero, Drawing, Basket Books, University of Houston, Recent Work, The Menil

Completed sofa for my studio at The University of Houston

Objects: Studio Furniture

January 21, 2024

This past fall I took to wood fabrication and sought a project that would make me feel more comfortable working with power tools and three dimensionally. Having recently moved into my studio at The University of Houston, I quickly learned that a sofa was an essential piece of studio furniture. So, building a sofa became my first project.

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Tags: Donald Judd, Wood, Furniture, Recent Work

John Guzman: Flesh and Bone at Blaffer Art Museum

Shows after the Heat Dome

September 20, 2023

It is Wednesday, September 20th, 2023, and Houston is in the midst of an exciting exhibition season. Having just resurfaced after the city’s second worst summer in recent history (2011 being the first), my head is scrambling to make sense of everything I’ve seen.

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Tags: Houston, Asia Society, Blaffer Art Museum, Pazda Butler, William Kentridge, Basket Books, Adam Marnie
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New Beginnings at The University of Houston

September 06, 2023

I am very excited to announce that I am a now graduate student at the University of Houston! Over the next three years, I will challenge, rework, and expand my art practice as I pursue a MFA in Painting.

I moved into Elgin Street Studios and made a proper nest of my studio in late August. Book shelves installed, flat files purged, and artwork organized.

It was bewildering to see everything I’ve been working on in a single room again. For the past year, my studio has been divided between a one bedroom apartment and a very full storage unit. Unfinished thoughts and loose threads ran rampant.

There is work to be done. My first set of critiques this week made that evident. I look forward to sharing what comes of all this in the months and years ahead.

Tags: MFA, University of Houston

Supported/Suspended with Open MFA

April 01, 2023

Earlier this year Open MFA welcomed me back for their collaborative exhibition Supported/Suspended at Box13 Artspace.

Organized by Hillaree Hamblin and Amanda Powers, the exhibition was an experimental approach to group curation. Inspired by the work of Jennifer Moss and Marie Watt, Open MFA’s Supported/Suspended offered its artists the opportunity to construct and respond to the metaphorical and literal prompt of support and suspension. Artists contributed individual works, created new work, and collaborated on the exhibition’s overall form.

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Tags: Open MFA, Exhibition, Artist Collective, Box13 Artspace

Detail of Luis Camnitzer’s Arbitrary Order (2023) at Alexander Gray Associates

Hyper-connectivity and Virtual Travel

February 17, 2023

I visited several shows in New York this past week, but I have decided to focus on only two as they share similar themes with my own work: Signs of Life at Templon Gallery and Arbitrary Order at Alexander Gray Associates.

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Tags: Luis Camnitzer, New York, Chiharu Shiota, installation
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BLOCK XXII Exhibition opens Thursday, September 8th

BLOCK XXII

August 29, 2022

For the past two years, I have had the pleasure of studying art and receiving professional feedback from guest artists and curators with the BLOCK Program at the Glassell Studio School at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Founded in 2014, BLOCK is an intense one to two-year program (artists re-apply for a second year) made up of 12 artists, including myself, and two mentors – Laura August and Francesca Fuchs.

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Tags: Block Program, Exhibition, Glassell Studio School
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Rendering of the pop-up truck camper to host the Here & There Residency

Announcing the Here & There Residency

June 17, 2022

Starting June 18th, I will embark on a new project titled the Here & There Residency (HTR). Taking place in a pop-up truck camper, this 3-6 month residency facilitates travel to remote locations, living nomadically, and engaging with the outdoors.

While traveling across the United States, I will investigate place, time, and movement in relation to physical reality and the digital present. This practice is in part a response to the pandemic and the looming encroachment of digital technology on everyday life.

In residence, I will host a Substack that will feature my written responses to physical place and logistics of the residency. Please consider purchasing a subscription to support this work.

Tags: Residency, Substack, Travel

Installation view. Image: Amanda Powers.

Gathering What's Tangible Exhibition

May 20, 2022

Gathering What’s Tangible opened earlier this month at Flatland Gallery in Houston, Texas. I am incredibly excited about this group show, because it is my first exhibition as curator. Swimming in new waters, I was excited and nervous but kept it together despite getting sick one week prior.

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Tags: Exhibition, Open MFA, Craft, Curation, Houston

Women & Their Work: Fresh from the Studio

April 29, 2022 in Press

Women & Their Work invited me to “Fresh from the Studio”. I presented my work alongside artists Maria Cristina Jadick and Cristina White-Jones.

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Tags: Women & Their work

Memories at a Distance, 2021

Artists' Books Resources

April 02, 2022

Unlike an art book, catalog or monograph that tend to showcase artworks created in another medium, the term ‘artists’ books’ refers to publications that have been conceived as artworks in their own right.

This is an ongoing, living list of resources for artists’ books. Please comment with any suggestions or additions.

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Tags: Artists Books, Resource, The Printing Museum, Houston, Center for Book Arts, Book arts, Bookbinding
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Exhibition poster design by Amanda Powers

Open MFA at Raven Tower

March 31, 2022

I joined the artist collective Open MFA in fall 2019. We–Amanda, Hillaree, Ryan, and I–hosted social events, organized artist talks, and planned a collaborative group show for 2020. Then the pandemic hit. We tried planning a few virtual events, but those quietly subsided as Zoom burn out took over. Open MFA went on a hiatus.

In January 2022, nearly two years later, Open MFA relaunched. We planned our first meet-up for February and brainstormed ideas for the new year. By March, we hosted our first group show at Raven Tower.

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Tags: Open MFA, Exhibition, Megan Olivia Ebel, Houston, Artist Collective

Best of 2021

January 12, 2022
Best of 2021

These are the exhibitions and artworks I will remember from 2021. I start with a bit of writing and then trail off with a list.

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Tags: painting, Niki de Saint Phalle, The Menil, Etel Adnan, Guggenheim, HCCC, Dia Chelsea, Lucy Raven, Jennifer Ling Datchuk, Met Museum, Ellsworth Kelly, Blanton, Donald Judd, Chinati, Lawndale, Nicole Eisenman, Laguna Gloria
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BLOCK XXI Exhibition

November 01, 2021

After an exciting year in the studio and awkward year on Zoom, I am proud to share BLOCK XXI’s group exhibition. The exhibition features work by the 12 artists of BLOCK XXI and is on view at the Glassell School of Art through December 3, 2021.

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Tags: Exhibition, Block Program, Houston, Glassell Studio School

Studio image (August 31, 2021)

Making the Cave

October 15, 2021

This is the second post regarding the project “From the Cave”. When I received word of the project’s approval, I began researching the ideas and themes associated with it further.

To read about the planning stage, please visit the first post.

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Tags: William Kentridge, Sarah Sze, Susan Sontag, Recent Work, digital, Covid-19, philosophy
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From the Cave, September 3, 2021, photographed by Erica Lee.

Planning the Cave

September 30, 2021

I recently completed “From the Cave” - my first artwork intended for a larger public and funded by a grant. It was an installation and an online performance - two categories that were also new to me.

The grant application was surprisingly helpful to the project as it encouraged me to be specific. I went from having a vague idea of what I wanted to do, to having a very clear vision. The deadline also helped me push through moments of indecision.

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Tags: Covid-19, painting, red and blue, Recent Work, installation, digital, Grants, philosophy
Newspaper open to the "Art Picks" section.

From the Cave is the number three art pick in the Chron’s Preview section.

Featured in Houston Chronicle's Preview

September 04, 2021 in Press

From the Cave was selected as one of the “four fine-arts events you need to see this week” by The Houston Chronicle.

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Featured Posts

Featured
Sep 1, 2024
Fieldwork Marfa
Sep 1, 2024
Sep 1, 2024
Jan 21, 2024
Objects: Studio Furniture
Jan 21, 2024
Jan 21, 2024
Aug 29, 2022
BLOCK XXII
Aug 29, 2022
Aug 29, 2022
May 20, 2022
Gathering What's Tangible Exhibition
May 20, 2022
May 20, 2022
Oct 5, 2019
Digital Artist-in-Residence
Oct 5, 2019
Oct 5, 2019

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This blog and its content is by Erica Reed Lee and is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.

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