ARTIST STATEMENT
I am fascinated by how humans codify, document, and distribute knowledge. My projects explore the dynamics of knowledge preservation, questioning what kinds of knowledge are deemed valuable.
My art references traditional methods of codifying knowledge through print and book-like formats, repetition, and carefully arranged elements. However, it also highlights modes of knowledge keeping that are often overlooked: place-based, intuitive, empirical, tacit, unknowing, biological ecosystems, foodways, and wayfinding.
In the late 1800s, a printing press arrived in Aiyansh, British Columbia, Canada, in the Nass River Valley. The man who ordered it from England had never used a printing press. Piece by piece, over many months, he assembled the press, taught himself to use it, and began publishing a newsletter letterpress-printed onto paper. He wrote his newsletter to share news of Aiyansh with people back in his hometown and to teach the people around him his language and ideas. He aimed to change people with information and stories.
These same interests first drew me to print media—the legacy and power of the printed object, tactile techniques, and the challenge of combining ideas and images. Over time, my research in print media and book arts has expanded to question the supremacy and perceived value of printed words and images. I am attracted to projects that highlight the power, both creative and destructive, of knowledge systems reliant on printed objects for transmission.
My ancestor Wilhelmina Derrick was born in the Nass River Valley, BC, near that printing press. She was nine years old when the press arrived in the land my family called home. The man with the printing press changed many things in the Nass Valley forever. He was there to spread his religion, and he and others like him systematically damaged my Indigenous family’s culture and knowledge archives.
My interest in how humans codify, document, and distribute knowledge stems from my family’s loss. I am fixated on the knowledge my family lost due to diaspora and cultural genocide and am working to imagine a world where that knowledge is restored.
BIOGRAPHY
Amanda Lee is a multidisciplinary artist specializing in printmaking, book arts, and photography. Her images and installations evoke a sense of poetic minimalism, inspired by sacred texts, transcendentalist paintings, and manuscripts. She creates art that investigates the intersection of Indigenous knowledge systems with print media and book art theory.
Lee earned an MFA at Indiana University, Bloomington, and was the recipient of the inaugural Virginia A. Myers Visiting Artist / Visiting Assistant Professorship in Printmaking at the University of Iowa. She has presented work internationally in Scotland and Hong Kong and has had several solo exhibitions at SG Gallery in Venice, Italy. Lee was an artist in residence at the McColl Center for Art + Innovation, the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, and Willapa Bay AIR.
An avid teacher, Lee will begin an appointment as Assistant Professor in Painting + Drawing + Printmaking at the UW School of Art + Art History + Design in the fall of 2025. She previously held faculty positions at University of Minnesota, Utah State University, the University of Georgia, and the University of Arkansas. She has been a visiting artist and taught workshops at Kent State University, Loyola Marymount University, the University of Alberta, and Penland School of Crafts. Lee has received several awards, including an Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation grant and a public art ‘boot-camp’ fellowship and commission from the City of Seattle.
Her family left their traditional home in the Nass River Valley, BC, in the mid-1900s and settled in Seattle, WA, as Urban Indians. She maintains studios in Seattle, WA and Minneapolis, MN.
NEWS
Whiteley Center Visiting Scholar
Whiteley Center at Friday Harbor Laboratories, University of Washington, Friday Harbor, WA
Summer, 2024
Event Scores for the End of the World
Seattle Art Book Fair
May 11, 2024
Unverified and Unreasonable
SGCI Conference 2024, Providence, RI
April 6, 2024
Huntington Library Short-term Fellowship Recipient
The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, Los Angeles, California
Fall, 2023
Essential Workers: A Visual Narrative
Self Help Graphics and Art, Los Angeles, California
February 25 to March 30, 2023
Blurring the Lines: Exploring the Frontiers of Photography and Printmaking
Remarque Print Workshop & Gallery, Albuquerque, New Mexico
July 8 to August 28, 2022
Smart Objects / Flattened Images
Well Well Projects, Portland, Oregon
September 3 to 25, 2022
The Feminist Biennial
Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
September 24 to November 5, 2022
Los Angeles Printmaking Society National Exhibition
Mixografia, Los Angeles, California
October 15 to November 12, 2022
Erratics Portfolio
Saltgrass Printmakers, Salt Lake City, Utah
Traveling 2022 to 2024 - https://artsandmuseums.utah.gov/erratics/