Assumed Identities: Nikki S. Lee

Born in Korea, the New York based artist Nikki S. Lee explores disparate sub-cultural identities by integrating herself into selected communities. She accomplishes this immersion through a prolonged period of research and then by adapting a given social group’s code of dress and identifying accoutrements, its recognizable behavior and body language. With the aid of elaborate makeup and wardrobe, she lives the life of a given group, such as a punk, a yuppie, a tourist, and an elderly woman, for days or months. Taken by someone else with a snapshot camera, the photographs always include Lee, often depicted with people from the community she is examining. About 20 of her casual color images from various projects will be featured in this exhibition. Lee has a keen eye for social detail and her work is enriched by humor and satire.

Pressetext

Assumed Identities: Nikki S. Lee Photographs