Daniel Lee Xiao Jing
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Known as Lee Xiaojing in Chinese, Daniel, a fine arts photographer, was born in Chunking, China and raised in Taiwan. He received an MFA in Photography and Film from Philadelphia College of Art and worked as an Art Director in New York until the late seventies, at which point he switched careers to photography. Recent computer technological advances have allowed him to combine his drawing, photographic and fine art skills in one medium.
Beginning from stark portraits photographed with a high resolution digital camera, Daniel Lee submits his pictorial subjects to the digital wringer, provoking their unsettling metamorphosis into animal-like forms. He appropriately entitled these series "Manimals", "Judgement", "108 Windows", "Origin" and "Nightlife" initially shown at O.K. Harris Works of Art Gallery in New York since 1993, in addition, these works attracted the attention of publications like PBS Television, New York Times, American Photo, Zoom, Wired Magazine, Art Life, Harper's, Creative Technology magazines and gallery and museum exhibitions in France, Italy, England, Japan, Taiwan, Portugal, Canada, Germany and Austria.
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[edit] Collections
His photographs are included in public and private collections such as the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York; the National Museum of Art, Taipei Fine Art Museum and Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan; the New Mexico Museum of Fine Arts; the Musee de la Mode de la Ville de Paris; Landes Museum in Linz, Austria; Merck & Co., Seattle and Phoenix Art Group, Phoenix.
[edit] Teaching
Lee has lectured at the Fogg Art Museum of Harvard University (2005), Maryland Institute College of Art (1997), Ithaca College, New York (1998); the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York (1990); the Beijing Central Art Institute (1986) and the Art School of Shanghai University (1984).
[edit] Exhibits
Daniel Lees work has been shown internationally in solo exhibitions at O.K. Harris Works of Art, New York (1993, 1994, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2005), the East Gallery, Taipei (2005), Nichido Contemporary Art, Tokyo (2004), CCB Center, Lisbon (1999), the Galerie du Chateau d'Eau, Toulouse (1995), the Fotofo Gallery, Bratislava (1995), both of his "108 Windows" and "Origin" in video installation have been shown in the 2003 Biennale of Venice, and to be chosen as the logo artist by Ars Electronica 2005, Linz, Autria.
Selected Group Exhibitions
2006 "DIGIARTE 2006", Limonaia of Bardini Garden, Florence, Italy
2006 "In Vivo In Vitro", Ergostasio Center, Athens, Greece
2006 "Bipmap", International Digital Photo at Loop, Seoul, Korea
2005 "Hybrid", Ars Electronica 2005, Linz, Austria
2005 "Light Conversation", Fogg Museum, Harvard University, MA, USA
2005 "Future Face", National Museum of Natural Science, Taichung, Taiwan
2004 "Il Bello e le bestie", Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Trento, Italy
2004 "Petting Creature Liberation", CO4 Taiwan Documental, Taipei, Taiwan
2004 "Future Face", Science Museum, London, England
2004 "Gene(sis)", Block Museum of Art, Evanston, IL, USA
2004 "Exposed", Stadtische Museen Heilbornn, Germany
2004 "Metamorphosis", J.M. Kohler Art Center, Wisconsin
2004 "Animal Instincts", Montalvo Arts Center, Saratoga, CA, USA
2004 "Fantastic Art", Landes Museum, Linz, Austria
2004 "Whitstable Biennale 2004", Kent, England
2003 "Sphere", Presentation House Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
2003 "Limbo Zone", Palazzo delle Prigioni, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy.
2003 "Gene(sis)", Berkeley Art Museum, San Francisco, USA
2002 "Metamorphing", transformation in science, art and mythology, Science Museum, London, England
2002 "Gene(sis)", Contemporary Art Explores Human Genetics, Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, WA, USA
2001 "Unknown/Infinity", Taipei Gallery, New York, USA
2000 "Judgement", O.K. Harris Works of Art, New York, USA
1999 "Photography and the Human Soul, 1850-2000" Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA, USA
1998 "The Unreal Person", Huntington Beach Art Center, CA, USA
1998 "Revolution" First Decade of Digital Photo, Museum of Science & Technology, Milan, Italy
1996 "Myth and Magic", California Center for the Arts Museum, Escondido, CA, USA
1996 "Il Ritratto Maltrattato", Palazzo Vendermini, Forli, Italy
1996 "Creative Technology Art & Design", Creative Technology Digital Gallery, London, England
1995 "Il Ritratto Maltrattato", Il Diaframma, Milan, Italy
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2006 "Manimals", Pa Ta Gallery Contemporary Art, Beijing, China
2005 "Harvest", O.K. Harris Works of Art, New York, USA
2005 "Harvest", East Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan
2004 "Harvest", Nichido Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan
2004 "Nightlife", Taipei Art Fair International 2004, Taipei, Taiwan
2001 "Nightlife", O.K. Harris Works of Art, New York, USA
1999 "Origin" & "Judgement", Cyber 99, CCB, Lisbon, Portugal
1999 "Origin", O.K. Harris Works of Art, New York, USA
1997 "108 Windows", O.K. Harris Works of Art, New York, USA
1997 "Judgment", Home Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan
1996 "Manimals", J.J. Brookings Gallery, San Francisco, USA
1995 "Manimals" Galerie du Chateau d'Eau, Toulouse, France
1995 "Manimals", Shimazu Studio, Fukuoka, Japan
1995 "Judgment" Gallery of the World, Benska Stiavnica, Slovakia
1994 "Judgement", O.K. Harris Works of Art, New York, USA
1993 "Manimals", O.K. Harris Works of Art, New York, USA
1992 "Color of the Third Kind", Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan
[edit] Reviews
American Photo Magazine -Carol Squiers, Sr. Editor
When Daniel Lee talks about making his fantastical man-beast portraits, he sounds more like a plastic surgeon than a photographer. "I have to change the eyeball from a human eyeball to an animal eyeball; I have to remove the eyebrows to make the nose broader," he says matter-of-factly about the computer alterations he makes. What he ends up with are eerie portraits he calls "Manimals", such as his recent "1949-Year of the Ox" and "1962-Year of the Tiger".
Chinese lore has it that people have the personality and behavioral traits of-and even a physical resemblance to-the animal that defines their sign in the Chinese zodiac. Lee, who was born in China in 1945 and now lives in New York, finds people who were born in each of the 12 signs (although he does make a few substitutions). Then he takes a 2 1/4 Haselblad portrait of each person and scans it into his Macintosh Quadra 950. Next, he alters their human features by introducing characteristics of specific animal features, based on pictures he keeps handy for reference. The software he uses to make the changes is the well-known Adobe Photoshop, which he calls "one of the greatest things to happen in photography since the invention of the camera".
Far from looking like the psychedelic-inspired futurism of much computer art, Lee’s portraits are intuitive renditions in which he uses his imagination to make uncanny and strangely believable transformations.
