Bio

Bovey Lee is a contemporary artist known for intricate hand-cut paper works and installations that examine migration as a defining human impulse across human, ecological, and digital realms. Working with Chinese Xuan paper, historically reserved for male literati while papercutting was dismissed as rural women’s craft, she reclaims and repositions the material within contemporary fine art. Using digital software to construct templates for hand cutting, Lee creates 2.5-dimensional environments where solid and void generate spectrum of shifting light and shadow to imbue depth and luminosity.

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.

View full CV here.

Selected Collections

Lee’s works are held in the permanent collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA; Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada; Vancouver Art Gallery, Canada; Fengxian Museum, Shanghai, China; Hong Kong Museum of Art; USC Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena, CA; Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Oxford, UK; and The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Corporate collections include BNY, Fidelity, Progressive, and Stanford Health Care.

Selected Exhibitions

Solo and group exhibitions span institutions including the Brooklyn Museum, NY; Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV; National Museum of Fine Art, Beijing; Hong Kong Museum of Art; Fukuoka Museum of Art, Japan; Museum Kunst der Westkueste, Alkersum/Foehr, Germany; Museum Rijswijk, Netherlands; and Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Oxford, UK.

Selected Commissions

In addition to Lee’s own studio practice, she has created bespoke 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; and Hong Kong Museum of Art.

Explore Commissions here.

Selected 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; and Jackie Chan Charitable Foundation Academic Achievement Award, Hong Kong.

Selected Press

Leading publications have featured her works including The New York Times, CNN, O, The Oprah Magazine, Wallpaper, Financial Times HTSI Italy, Vogue Hong Kong, Architectural Digest China, Tatler China, Colossal, Juxtapoz, Hi Fructose, and Artnet.

View Press here.

Selected Publications

Lee’s works have also been published in over twenty books and numerous publications on contemporary cut paper including Victoria & Albert Museum’s series titled Paper Crafts: A Maker’s Guide (Thames & Hudson, UK) and Experience Art, a middle school art curriculum for US students (Davis Publications, US). 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.