Steven Young Lee is an independent studio artist in Helena, MT. From 2006-2022, he was the Resident Artist Director of the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts in Helena, Montana where he maintained an active studio practice while orchestrating an organization devoted to excellence in ceramics. In 2004-05, he lectured and taught at numerous universities throughout China as part of a cultural and educational exchange in Jingdezhen, Shanghai and Beijing and spent two months in Seoul, South Korea studying ceramic tradition and history. In 2005-6 he was a visiting professor at Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver, B.C.
Lee has lectured extensively in North America and Asia. In the Fall of 2016 he was one of four artists featured as part of the Renwick Invitational at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C. In March 2013 he participated on a panel, “Americans in the Porcelain City,” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Also in 2013, he was one of several international artists invited to participate in “New Blue and White,” an exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, MA featuring contemporary artists working in the blue-and-white tradition. In 2019, he had a solo exhibition at the Portland Art Museum. In 2021, his work was included in “Crafting America”, a survey of contemporary craft at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and OBJECTS:USA 2020 curated by Glenn Adamson in partnership with R&Co in New York, NY.
His work has been collected by the Smithsonian Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of Art, the Portland Art Museum, the Newark Museum of Art, the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, the Everson Museum of Art, the Four Seasons Hotel in Seoul, Korea, and many private and public collections.
Lee earned his BFA and MFA in Ceramics from Alfred University.
As the son of immigrant parents, I am often situated between cultures. Living and working in metropolitan centers such as New York, Chicago, Shanghai, Seoul and Vancouver, as well as the rural communities of Alfred, Jingdezhen and Helena has continually raised questions of identity and assimilation. My experiences range from being an outsider in the country of my heritage to that of being an Asian minority in Helena, Montana. Growing up as a second generation Korean American, my identity has felt neither fully Korean or American, and it is through my studio practice where I investigate an understanding of place and belonging.
Imagery, color and classical pottery form are deeply embedded with meaning. I cross-reference iconic elements from different cultural sources, East and West, to set up unfamiliar, discordant or ironic relationships. While some pop culture imagery can be viewed as kitsch, figures and characters like Bruce Lee and Godzilla were limited yet relatable Eastern heroes in my youth that became a point of pride as they were accepted into the mainstream. Similarly, the Joseon dynasty moon jar, has become a representation of Korean culture to the degree it was featured in the 2018 Winter Olympic opening ceremony in Pyeongchang. Color associations in the US
are used to convey patriotism or categorize race, but these associations can be irrelevant in other parts of the world.
Intentionally deconstructing vessels recalibrates notions of classical perfection and beauty and seeks to critique ideas of craft skill and the innate value of an object. By making porcelain vessels intended to crack in the firing and morphing traditional decorative practices, I am challenging a deep history of craft protocols and questioning the boundaries and authenticity of identity, ownership and intent