Cecil W. Lee

Cecil W. Lee is a New York–based artist whose digital path began with curiosity rather than formal training. He purchased his first computer in the 1980s, eager for new adventures into the unknown, and quickly immersed himself in both the major business applications of the day and the emerging online world of AOL, then $7 an hour. Soon after, he became intrigued by the possibilities of digital editing and image manipulation. By the early 1990s, as software such as Photoshop and Illustrator became more accessible, he began experimenting with photography, painting, and mixed media as raw material for digital transformation.

 

Today, Lee specializes in what he calls Computer-Evolved Digital Compositions, a synthesis of digital imagery with altered paintings, mixed media, photography, and scanned elements. His works often unfold through multi-generational progressions, where a painting, assemblage, or photograph from years past may reappear in new form within a current composition. AI modifications, guided by his instructions, sometimes enter
the process early or late, serving as catalysts rather than defining forces.

Lee’s creations, whether abstract or figurative, reflect elements of pop surrealism, macabre undertones, and futuristic narratives. His images are layered and dreamlike, not by surface treatment alone but through the
stories they suggest. His work resists the purely decorative; instead, it provokes reflection. While his use of color and shading is striking, his compositions reach for something more elusive: a speculative space where
identity, memory, and imagined futures overlap.

In addition to visual practice, Lee extends these explorations into writing, creating hybrid projects where text and image interweave. His recently completed coffee-table book, Obsession with Change: A Look at the Future from the Beginning, exemplifies this approach, combining more than seventy cinematic images with short stories and fictional archives. The book, like his larger body of work, seeks to create experiences that feel
both tactile and virtual spaces where imprint and speculation converge.​

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​cecillee.com/owc

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