David Michael Lee

David Michael Lee is an Orange County-based artist, curator, professor, arts advocate, master storyteller; his work is a unique facet to the collection at Chapman.

Equal parts collage, painting, and spatial construction, Lee’s canvases often begin as fabric scraps sewn together on his grandmother’s sewing machine: a heavy-duty 1968 Singer. Driven by large blocks of color, Lee constructs challenging perspectives between patchwork canvas and vivid acrylic paint. Although his recent work is more abstract and simplified, most of Lee’s earlier work—found across Chapman’s campus—establishes a narrative through recognizable imagery, silhouettes or outlines.

(art collections blog, 2013)