Artist's Statement

My paintings are about remnants of the human struggles in the urban world. Growing up in the refugee slum of the then British colony of Hong Kong in the 50's, I was confronted and surrounded by concrete buildings that sprung up everywhere like barriers. These were also class barriers where I found myself being suppressed and trapped. I was in awe with the overwhelming blockage. But yet, I also felt hope. Knowing that one day I would breakout of that confinement. The memories of staring incessantly at those walls have deeply engraved in my mind. Whenever I look at walls in back alleys and side streets, I find myself inspired by the marks, cracks, nails, hinges, windows and graffiti on them. They reflect our existence and also our efforts to adapt and to alter that existence in the concrete jungle. They also bear witness to the human history and human condition. When there is effort, there is hope. My paintings are poetic expressions of such efforts.

  Biography

Gordon Sui-Kwong Lee was born in Hong Kong and after high school he went abroad to Canada to attend college in 1973. He received his Diploma D'etudes Collegiales en Sciences Sociale (Urban & Regional Planning major) from John Abbott College, Ste Anne de Bellevue, Quebec, and his BFA from Confordia University, Montreal, Quebec. With scholarship, he went to Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, MI, to attend graduate studies in painting. Following the conferral of his MFA, he became an instructor at Columbus College of Art and Design in 1981. In 1982 he returned to Hong Kong and became a lecturer at the Swire School of Design, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong. He received his tenure in 1987. But with the urging of Joseph V. Canzani, then president of CCAD in Columbus, Ohio, he returned to CCAD and resumed teaching in 1987. He is now an associate professor in the division of fine arts. His work has been shown on both shores of the Pacific Ocean.