Austin Lee knows how to render human emotion. Through a unique process that has defined his career, Lee explores human psychology and emotions by integrating software technologies with traditional methods of artmaking to produce vibrant paintings, sculptures and video works. Psychomachia marks Lee’s first solo exhibition in Los Angeles in eight years and third exhibition with Jeffrey Deitch.

Lee’s work explores the hyperreality of social media and the internet, and, in this exhibition, he continues to explore the complexity of human connection that can be refracted through our digital age. He uses 3-D and virtual reality software to make drawings that are then painted on canvases with airbrush or fabricated in materials like resin and bronze. Lee turns inward and examines his own raw emotions through saturated hues and uncanny images.

The exhibition also draws inspiration from a transformative visit Lee made to the Giotto Chapel in Padua, Italy, where he was inspired by painted scenes from the 14th-century poem Psychomachia by Prudentius. The poem, which depicts the allegorical battle between virtues and vices for control over the human soul, served as an important source for several paintings in the exhibition. Some paintings show imagery that is directly pulled from the Chapel’s walls, while other paintings are quiet references to familiar symbols, like animals and families. Lion with Blue Eyes (2024), for example, conjures feelings of valiance and strength, whereas In Bed (2024) invites visitors to participate in a more unsettling sensation–– the feeling of being vulnerable or being under surveillance.

Central to the exhibition space is Blue fountain (2022-2024), Lee’s fountain sculpture that was previously exhibited in his solo museum exhibition at the Lotte Museum of Art in Seoul, South Korea in September 2023.

The mezzanine features a series of new video works that continue to explore surveilled environments and the disquieting feelings in the paintings. The animated figures ogle at the viewer from the same viewpoint as reflected in In Bed. It is common for Lee to build upon previous works, placing them in a rich, multidimensional visual world through rendering them in different media.

Austin Lee (b. 1983) is an artist based in New York. Lee’s paintings often combine digital technologies with traditional media. Lee was born in Las Vegas, and raised in Philadelphia. He received an MFA in Painting from Yale School of Art in 2013 and a BFA in Painting from Tyler School of Art in 2006. While a student in Philadelphia, Lee’s studio doubled as a gallery space where he organized group and solo exhibitions to promote his artistic community. In recent years, he has presented several international exhibitions in Asia, Europe and the United States. Lee has collaborated with Jeffrey Deitch on his solo exhibitions Like it is in 2022 and Feels good in New York in 2019, a curated solo presentation at The armory show and Good pictures, a group show with over forty contemporary artists, both in 2020. His first solo museum exhibtion opened at the Lotte Museum of Art in Seoul in September 2023.