Bio

Bovey Lee is a contemporary artist known for her highly intricate hand cut paper and immersive installations that center on migration as a unifying theme. She explores the movement of people, identities, and societal patterns while addressing humanity’s evolving relationship with nature and technology. In her work, Lee transplants and recontextualizes existing images to create conceptual narratives that balance fragility and resilience, blending hand cut techniques with digital technologies for contemporary storytelling.

Read Artist Statement here.

Education

Born in Hong Kong and has been living in the US since 1993, Lee currently resides and works in Los Angeles, California. Lee’s first encounter with art was at age ten when a teacher taught her Chinese calligraphy. This seminal influence led her to complete a BA degree in Fine Arts at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Later, she pursued graduate studies in the US, first earning a Master of Fine Arts degree in Painting and Drawing from UC Berkeley and then a second MFA in Digital Arts at Pratt Institute in New York. Prior to her studio practice, Lee served as an art professor for a decade, teaching both traditional and digital media. She has maintained an independent professional practice since 2008.

Collections

Lee’s works have been exhibited worldwide and are represented in permanent collections including the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Oxford, UK; Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA); Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), Toronto, Canada; Vancouver Art Gallery, British Columbia, Canada; Fengxian Museum, Shanghai, China; Hong Kong Museum of Art; USC Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena, California; Escalette Collection of Art, Chapman University, Orange, California; The Chinese University of Hong Kong; BNY Mellon Corporate Art Collection; Fidelity Corporate Art Collection; Progressive Corporate Art Collection; Park Hyatt, Sanya, China; Stanford Health Care, Palo Alto, California; Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, California; Montage Health Foundation, Monterey, California; and private collections.

Awards

Lee is the recipient of numerous awards throughout her career, including the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant; Vira I Heinz Endowment for the Arts; Jack K & Gertrude Murphy Fine Art Fellowship, San Francisco Foundation; Pennsylvania Council on the Arts; Ruth and Harold Chenven Foundation; Urban Council Fine Arts Award, Hong Kong Art Biennale; Jackie Chan Charitable Foundation Academic Achievement Award; and many others.

Commissions

In addition to Lee’s own studio practice, she has created commissioned projects with Meta; Tech 21 x Apple; The New York Times Magazine; The New York Times T Brand Studio x Hennessy; 10 Hudson Yards; Lady Dior As Seen By, Dior; Hugo Boss; F.P. Journe; Lancôme; Clarins; Panasonic; The Washington Post; Hong Kong Museum of Art; APM, Hong Kong; Pacific Place, Hong Kong; Art@Government Buildings, Hong Kong; and others.

Read CV here.

Book Inclusions & Publications

Lee’s works have also been featured in over twenty books and numerous publications/media on the subject of contemporary cut paper. Notably, her work was included in a Victoria & Albert Museum’s series titled Paper Crafts: A Maker’s Guide, published by Thames & Hudson in the UK. Recently, her cut paper has been recognized by author Marilyn G. Stewart in Experience Art, a middle school art curriculum for US students. A new anthology Critical Histories of the Arts and Crafts Movement featuring her work will be published by the University of Manchester Press in 2026.

Browse Publications here.