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E.LEE - Conceptual Artist

@_e.lee_

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ART WITHOUT EDGES.
Making context part of the work.

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Vertical Gallery’s kaleidoscopic group exhibition ‘ASCENDING’ spotlights close to four dozen artists from across the urban-contemporary landscape — mainstays of our ongoing programming efforts, old friends returning after extended absences and new friends exhibiting with us for the very first time.

Chicago-based conceptual artist E.LEE needs no introduction to longtime Vertical patrons, but the depth and complexity of ”Picture No. 04” and “Picture No. 05,” the two pieces he created for ‘ASCENDING,’ demanded further inquiry.

“They seem at first to be pictures in frames. But when you look a bit closer at the middle, where the image is supposed to be, there doesn’t seem to be an image at all. You just see stripes or dots: a pattern that doesn’t represent anything outside of itself. And the more you look, the harder it becomes to tell where the picture ends and the frame begins,” E.LEE (@_e.lee_) says.
“These works create the idea of something that isn’t actually there. There is no frame. There is no glass. There is no ‘picture’ in the middle. But dividing the surface into a center and an outside creates a hierarchy. The individual elements are abstract, but their relationship to one another creates the representation.”

There’s much more on E.LEE’s inspirations and aspirations in the debut of Vertical’s newest web-exclusive series, Process Spotlight. Link in bio.

‘ASCENDING,’ presented in partnership with Frame Chicago (@framechicago), runs through Oct. 18 at 1627 N. Clybourn Ave.

#verticalgallery #ascending #elee #conceptualart #framechicago by @_e.lee_

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16 days ago

Picture No. 04

One of two new paintings for Ascending:
a group exhibition with @verticalgallery and @framechicago

Opening reception
Thursday, September 17
5:00–8:00pm

Frame Chicago
1627 N. Clybourn Ave.
Chicago, IL

Hope to see you there :)

Picture No. 04
2026
Spray paint, acrylic on cradled claybord
11 x 14 in by @_e.lee_

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a month ago

Picture No. 05

The second of two new paintings for Ascending:
a group exhibition with @verticalgallery and @framechicago

Opening reception
Thursday, September 17
5:00–8:00pm

Frame Chicago
1627 N. Clybourn Ave.
Chicago, IL

There’s a ton of great artists in the show…
if you’re in town, come say hi

Picture No. 05
2026
Spray paint, acrylic on cradled claybord
11 x 14 in taken in Frame Chicago by @_e.lee_

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a month ago

Picture No. 3
2026
12 × 16 in
Spray paint and acrylic on cradled wood panel

Part of an ongoing series reducing paintings to their simplest forms.

// Sold //

#ContemporaryArt #ConceptualArt #Minimalism #MinimalArt #Fineart by @_e.lee_

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4 months ago

Picture No 2
2026
Spray paint on cradled aluminum panel
18 x 24 in

The “Picture” series removes narrative and reduces the image to pattern. To me the work sits in a very exciting space… somewhere between representation and abstraction. A place where presentation itself has become part of the image.

Nothing to See Here
On view now through June 5th at @krausegallery

#EleeArt #KrauseGallery #NothingToSeeHere #PopArt ContemporaryArt ArtCollector NYCArtGallery LowerEastSide FineArtNYC StencilArt ArtOpening NewYorkCityArt ReductionArt taken in Krause Gallery by @_e.lee_

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5 months ago

What if a painting had nowhere else to send you?

Just a light, a dark, and the space between.

Picture No. 1
2026
24 × 36 in.
Spray paint on cradled wood panel

#ContemporaryPainting #ContemporaryArt #AbstractPainting #RepresentationalPainting #Painting taken in Krause Gallery by @_e.lee_

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5 months ago

A Portrait of God
2026 / Acrylic, spray paint, colored pencil
on hand-cut wood assemblage
32 × 39 in

Last day of Nothing to See Here at @krausegallery

Thank you to everyone who visited or supported the exhibition in any way. by @_e.lee_

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4 months ago

STAKEHOLDER IDENTIFICATION
Q3 2026

A Stakeholder issuance from The Bank of E.LEE.

Ten screen-printed Identification Cards, individually signed and numbered, issued to each Stakeholder.

The Bank of E.LEE by @_e.lee_

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a month ago

The first Deposits of the 2026 Charter Issue have been formally recorded.

Each Stakeholder has received a signed Receipt of Deposit.

Cycle I stands on record. by @_e.lee_

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8 months ago

This year I am initiating a long-term conceptual work:
The Bank of E.LEE

The 2026 cycle is fully subscribed.

I’ll be sharing more from inside the system as the year unfolds. by @_e.lee_

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9 months ago

Marking the Center is a simple object: a pedestal with a door. But interacting with it forces a real decision:
What deserves attention?
What should be discarded?

Inviting the viewer to participate and make the decision shifts the act of judgment from the artist to the viewer.

This piece is less about the final designation of any particular object, and more about revealing the power we have to assign value through our actions.

Marking the Center
Part of Nothing to See Here at @krausegallery
On view now through June 5

#ContemporaryArt #ConceptualArt #ParticipatoryArt #ContemporarySculpture #InstallationArt taken in Krause Gallery by @_e.lee_

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5 months ago

A Self-Portrait of Value 💰

In “Self Portrait No. 5,” the dollar sign is both elevated and reduced to pattern.
The repetition of the symbol becomes subject, meaning and structure, with a hierarchy emerging through context alone.

Please join us for the opening reception of this solo exhibition:

NOTHING TO SEE HERE

👤 Artist: E.LEE (@_e.lee_ )
🗓 Saturday, May 16th
🕓 4:00 PM – 7:00 PM
📍 Krause Gallery (@krausegallery)
🏙 149 Orchard St, New York, NY

#EleeArt #KrauseGallery #NothingToSeeHere #AndyWarhol #PopArt ContemporaryArt ArtCollector NYCArtGallery LowerEastSide FineArtNYC StencilArt ArtOpening NewYorkCityArt ReductionArt by @_e.lee_

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6 months ago