Rhys Lee paints to excite. With instinct acting as his muse, he manipulates elements of form and colour to create otherworldly scenarios. Immediately striking is his use of electric colours, which animate the picture plane and jostle for pre-eminence. Colour renders the forms that populate his canvases seductively luminescent. The vaguely grotesque figures and mysterious atmospheric landscapes insinuate a different kind of existence. On the edge of abstraction, figures and forms shift and transmogrify like psychedelic shadows buffeted by subliminal currents - Lee's rich painterly surfaces seem to float upon a darker content. Through his use of expansive scale, Lee extends an invitation to be absorbed by the ephemeral magic of his work, and to accompany him to unexpected places.
Read MoreMelbourne-based Lee graduated with a Bachelor of Visual Arts, Graphic Design, from Brisbane's Queensland College of Art in 1997. He holds regular solo exhibitions in eastern Australian centres, and has exhibited in New York. His work is held in collections in the United Kingdom, United States and Australia, including the BHP Billiton Collection.
