NIYA LEE
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Artist Statement

Our human culture has a terrifyingly powerful effect on the environment in which it exists, impacting other life forms and systems and, ultimately, cycling back around to impact us, which has influenced me to assess the function and responsibility of human culture, and my position as an artist within it.  At times I labor quietly, creating works that are representative of our relations with the rest of the world, and each other, while at other times I am moved to create in ways and/or places that actively connect with the public, that directly re-establish the necessity of community, and that address human-caused environmental degradation.

My personal  art-making has many avenues, from crafting useful everyday objects like bowls and plates, to shaping figurative sculptures, to forming experimental narrative clay installations that tell stories through their changing form.  All these different pursuits are tied together by the material I create with ~ clay.  I value its responsiveness, the intuitive way of working with it, and the myriad of things it can be formed into.   I believe it is our role, our duty as artists to pay attention and respond to what engages us, appalls us, inspires us, and to, also, give attention to our more animal nature by way of instinct and intuition, and because I am not a static object, I am pulled between various pursuits that sometimes seem disparate; however like our interconnected world they all intersect and share an intangible essence. 

Through hybrid sculptures, gifting endeavors, and disintegrating clay gestures, I aim to intone a spirit of empathy and relation with the natural world and each other.  I aspire for my art to reveal some of the intricate relationships that occupy life, while maintaining a fresh expression.

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