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A Conversation with Jane Lee

One of Singapore’s foremost contemporary artists, Jane Lee works primarily with the medium of paint, creating visually resplendent works that draw the viewer in with their heavily textured surfaces and dynamic presences. Much of Lee’s work seeks to redefine painting’s conventions while vividly bringing to life paint and painting’s materiality and processes. ART SG speaks with Lee to hear how she found her ‘voice’ in abstraction, and her journey as an artist.

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Jane Lee in her studio. Image by Sarah Isabelle Tan. 

Interview by Tan Siuli

"I never thought about becoming a full-time artist until I left my fashion designing job. I decided to take a new path and start all over again to pursue fine art that would allow me all the freedom to create."
"I never thought about becoming a full-time artist until I left my fashion designing job. I decided to take a new path and start all over again to pursue fine art that would allow me all the freedom to create."
"I was trained in classical figurative painting, but after painting this way for some time, I realised something was missing in my art. All the skills I accumulated belongs to the past; they are not my art language and I was merely an imitator. One day I decided to drop all the painting skills I had acquired and to start all over again to find my own voice."
"I was trained in classical figurative painting, but after painting this way for some time, I realised something was missing in my art. All the skills I accumulated belongs to the past; they are not my art language and I was merely an imitator. One day I decided to drop all the painting skills I had acquired and to start all over again to find my own voice."
"The fundamentals of working up a painting in my training– building my own painting stretcher, stretching the raw canvas for priming and so on– had a big impact on how I approached my abstraction. I started to question: why painting? What is painting? What makes a painting, a painting? How can I create art in an unconventional way that is more related to daily life, that can allow me to be free, to celebrate, and to embrace unexpected processes, as in life? All this led me to my abstract, sculptural paintings today."
"The fundamentals of working up a painting in my training– building my own painting stretcher, stretching the raw canvas for priming and so on– had a big impact on how I approached my abstraction. I started to question: why painting? What is painting? What makes a painting, a painting? How can I create art in an unconventional way that is more related to daily life, that can allow me to be free, to celebrate, and to embrace unexpected processes, as in life? All this led me to my abstract, sculptural paintings today."
"My earlier works such as 'Raw Canvas' were very textural and built up from many layers. There are many unexpected colours hidden beneath the surfaces, like a game of hide and seek."
"My earlier works such as 'Raw Canvas' were very textural and built up from many layers. There are many unexpected colours hidden beneath the surfaces, like a game of hide and seek."
"In works like 'Status', I wanted to challenge the idea of painting as a two-dimensional object, and transform it into something three-dimensional. Around the time I made the work (2009), many artists had turned away from painting to other media. Painting had lost its status in contemporary times, unlike in the past when it was highly regarded. The title of my work is a comment on this, while also questioning the conventions of painting."
"In works like 'Status', I wanted to challenge the idea of painting as a two-dimensional object, and transform it into something three-dimensional. Around the time I made the work (2009), many artists had turned away from painting to other media. Painting had lost its status in contemporary times, unlike in the past when it was highly regarded. The title of my work is a comment on this, while also questioning the conventions of painting."
"Works in my 'Fetish' series were created using dry paint skin, a discovery I made when I was cleaning my painting palette one day and managed to pull out thick layers of dry paint residue from my palette. I thought that was beautiful and unexpected."
"Works in my 'Fetish' series were created using dry paint skin, a discovery I made when I was cleaning my painting palette one day and managed to pull out thick layers of dry paint residue from my palette. I thought that was beautiful and unexpected."
"I later recreated the residue and rolled them into tiny rosettes, cut and sliced them like onions, and reattached them onto the canvas. This is a process of construction, deconstruction, and reconstruction."
"I later recreated the residue and rolled them into tiny rosettes, cut and sliced them like onions, and reattached them onto the canvas. This is a process of construction, deconstruction, and reconstruction."
"My earlier works are very much about building up in layers. The surfaces are very dense and full even though they look like monochrome paintings from afar. This is very labour intensive, and I think this building-up of surfaces and layering is typical of Western aesthetics of painting."
"My earlier works are very much about building up in layers. The surfaces are very dense and full even though they look like monochrome paintings from afar. This is very labour intensive, and I think this building-up of surfaces and layering is typical of Western aesthetics of painting."
"In recent years I started to view life from a different perspective. I was very much attracted to emptiness, to white space, and to ideas of effortlessness and subtraction. These elements made me appreciate East Asian landscape painting traditions."
"In recent years I started to view life from a different perspective. I was very much attracted to emptiness, to white space, and to ideas of effortlessness and subtraction. These elements made me appreciate East Asian landscape painting traditions."
"To me, colours are magical, and have a tremendous effect on one’s mood. In my earlier paintings, I was very much drawn to colours that reflected my mood at the time. In recent years I have kept my palette minimal, so as to minimise distraction in order to allow more important messages I wish to speak, come through in the work."
"To me, colours are magical, and have a tremendous effect on one’s mood. In my earlier paintings, I was very much drawn to colours that reflected my mood at the time. In recent years I have kept my palette minimal, so as to minimise distraction in order to allow more important messages I wish to speak, come through in the work."
Image credits:
1. Jane Lee in her studio. Image by Sarah Isabelle Tan.
2. Jane Lee’s studio. Image by Sarah Isabelle Tan.
3. Jane Lee. Image courtesy of the artist. 
4. Jane Lee, ‘Raw Canvas’, 2008, at the National Gallery Singapore. Image by Sarah Isabelle Tan. 
5. Jane Lee, ‘Status’, 2009. Image courtesy of the artist and Sundaram Tagore Gallery.
6. Jane Lee’s studio. Image by Sarah Isabelle Tan
7. Jane Lee. Image courtesy of the artist.
8. Detail of ‘Raw Canvas’. Image by Sarah Isabelle Tan
9. Jane Lee, Alpha and Omega, 2022. Image courtesy of a private collection.
10. Jane Lee, ‘Where Is Painting #5’, 2022. Image courtesy of the artist and Sundaram Tagore Gallery

Jane Lee: Where Is Painting is on view at Sundaram Tagore Gallery (Singapore) from 20 August to 29 October 2022.

Jane Lee will also be presenting works with Sundaram Tagore Gallery at ART SG 2023.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: TAN SIULI

Tan Siuli is an independent curator with over a decade of experience encompassing the research, presentation and commissioning of contemporary art from Southeast Asia. Major exhibition projects include two editions of the Singapore Biennale (2013 and 2016), inter-institutional traveling exhibitions, as well as mentoring and commissioning platforms such as the President’s Young Talents exhibition series. She has also lectured on Museum-based learning and Southeast Asian art history at institutes of higher learning in Singapore. Her recent speaking engagements include presentations on Southeast Asian contemporary art at Frieze Academy London and Bloomberg’s Brilliant Ideas series.

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