Bovey Lee Presents Solo Exhibition "Paper Streets"

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


Contact:

Veronica Corpuz
The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust
corpuz@pgharts.org
412-471-6082



Bovey Lee: “Paper Streets”

709 Penn Gallery, 709 Penn Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15222

Downtown Pittsburgh Cultural District

April 15-May 22, 2011


Pittsburgh, PA: To commemorate her 10th anniversary as a Pittsburgh resident, Bovey Lee presents "Paper Streets," a solo exhibition of new work based on her visual cataloging of the city and its region's topographical complexity. Her first exhibition at The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s 709 Penn Gallery, “Paper Streets” showcases Bovey Lee’s modern interpretations crafted in the intricate and ancient art of Chinese paper cutting. The show opens on Friday, April 15, 2011, with an artist reception from 6-8 p.m., and concludes on May 22.

Using cut paper as her medium, Lee hand cut over 600 paper objects to create installations that explore resolute themes such as the geography's influence on life in the region and the city's constant efforts to recreate itself. More light-hearted works look at the practice of deploying folding chairs in the streets to claim parking spaces and seats along parade routes. The exhibition’s title comes from the so-called paper streets that are plunging staircases or walkways on maps considered as valid streets in Pittsburgh.

“The underlying themes in my paper cutouts are power, sacrifice, and survival,” the artist notes. “Drawing ideas from my cultural identity and gender, headline news, environmental issues, and socio-political commentaries, I painstakingly hand cut each work on a single sheet of paper that depicts layered and dramatic narratives. The deep paradoxes in my works contrast starkly with the airy, fragile laces of the cutouts.”

Bovey Lee works with rice paper, because the material is both culturally significant and sustainable. Handmade from mulberry tree bark, rice paper is tissue thin, dense, and soft to the touch. Silk is mounted to the back of the paper to add resilience and silk is also renewable.

Her creative process is three-fold: hand drawing, digital rendering, and hand cutting. She begins by sketching before creating a digital template, which serves as a visual guide, comprising downloaded images, her own digital photographs, scans from magazines and books, and vector graphics. The final step consists of several hours of hand-cutting the image with an X-acto knife.

Bovey Lee has exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York; Museum Bellerive, Zurich, Switzerland; National Glass Centre, Sunderland, UK; Museum Rijswijk, The Netherlands; Pittsburgh Center for the Arts; Museum of Fine Arts, Beijing, China; Fukuoka Museum of Art, Fukuoka, Japan; Hong Kong Museum of Art; Asian American Arts Center, New York; Rossi & Rossi, London, UK; Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco; and many others.

Her work has been recognized with grants and awards from the Ruth & Harold Chenven Foundation, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Vira I. Heinz Endowment, the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation and the Asian American Arts Center in New York.

Bovey Lee graduated with a BA in Fine Arts from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1991. In 1995, she received a MFA in painting from the University of California at Berkeley. In 2000, Bovey earned a second MFA in digital arts from Pratt Institute in New York.
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Executive Women's Council Presents Women in Arts Festival

Executive Womens Council
April 14, 2008


April 18, 2008-April 19, 2008


Co-Presented by the
New Hazlett Theater, Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council
& Women and Girls Foundation

The New Hazlett Theater, Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council and the Women and Girls Foundation present a dynamic symposium, Art, Activism & Equity, as part of the "Women in the Arts" Festival on April 18 and 19, 2008. The festival, which features the Guerrilla Girls (art activists who have come to be known as "the Conscience of the Art World.") and Faythe Levine (Director and Author of "Handmade Nation: Documenting the rise of DIY Art, Craft & Design"), celebrates the accomplishments of women in the arts in Pittsburgh and connects the local arts community with national resources, trends, and philosophies.

The symposium will explore solutions regarding Southwest Pennsylvania's embarrassing record of women's compensation rates, build networks among Pittsburgh's emerging and established arts leaders while celebrating our region's unique strengths as a center for individual accomplishment. The program will also explore politics and feminism and will encourage local action, connection to resources and coalition building.

SCHEDULE HIGHLIGHTS

FRIDAY, APRIL 18, 2008, 2:00 to 9:00 PM

Opening Presentation
Guerrilla Girls, featuring Frida Kahlo, on the history and work of the Guerrilla Girls in exposing sexism, racism and corruption in the art world, politics, film and pop culture.

Workshops

Crafting Your Life: Craftivism & Creating Community
This workshop will be spearheaded by Faythe Levine, Director and Author of "Handmade Nation: Documenting the rise of DIY Art, Craft & Design" (Book Release: November 2008, Princeton Architectural Press. Documentary Release: 2009), and Elizabeth Perry, BlogHER Innovator New Media Artist and creator of Woolgathering, conceived as an 18th-century Commonplace Book brought to the Web (http://www.elizabethperry.com/woolgathering).

Getting active and Initiating Change.
Guerrilla Girls


Panel Discussion
The quest for equality is still critical. Conversation will explore today's feminist movement in the arts, in politics, in business and across generations.
Moderator: Sara Radelet and Sylvia Rhor
Panelists:
Heather Arnet, Women and Girls Foundation
Vanessa German, Slam poet and visual artist
Chelsa Wagner, Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Nancy Washington, Vice Chairperson, August Wilson Center for African American Culture

Reception and Performance
Selected works by Vanessa German

SATURDAY, APRIL 19, 2008, 10:30 AM to 9:00 PM

Opening Presentation
Melissa Swauger, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Carlow University, will present the Implicit Association Test, demonstrating that we all have subconscious discriminations.

Panel Discussion
Women Making Change! Today women in PA make 70 cents for every buck a man earns. This panel will talk about how we can work together to CHANGE this!
Moderator: Heather Arnet, Women and Girls Foundation
Panelists:
Selena Schmidt, Chief of Staff for City Council President Doug Shields
M.J. Tocci, Fulcrum Advisors
Audrey Murrell, University of Pittsburgh, Katz School of Business

Mini Catapult Workshop
Presenter: Heather Arnet, Women and Girls Foundation
Catapult is a new project of the Women & Girls Foundation that matches trained, volunteer coaches with women who want to become more skilled and confident in their use of negotiation to improve their professional situations.

Reception and Performances
Autumn Ayers
Nicole Reynolds
Soma Mestizo

To register for the symposium or for more information, please call the New Hazlett Theater at 412-320-4610, ext. 17 or email dsciranka@aol.com.

Karen Myres

Executive Womens Council