Artists in residence

Alexander Lee was born in Stockton, California and grew up in Mahina, on the island of Tahiti, French Polynesia. He lives and works between Tahiti and New York. He received his BFA from the School of Visual Arts (2000), his MFA from Columbia University (2002) and MPS from the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) at New York University (2004). 

His trilogy, THE DEPARTURE OF THE FISH, whose title refers to the creation myth of the island of Tahiti, was exhibited at Kinkead Contemporary, Los Angeles in 2006 and at Clementine Gallery, New York in 2007. Her subsequent projects, RECITATIONS FROM THE GREAT FISH CHANGING SKIES (2008), and EXPANDING-EEL-DEVOURER (2009), reflect her interest in narrative and the anthropic process. 

THE TUPAPAU WITHIN (TE TUPAPAU MANAVA) (2010-11), a contemporary opera about the inner beasts at play in the creative process, was conceived with Composer Keith Moore and installed in the Newman Popiashvili Gallery with contributions from Gabriel Romero, Juliana Snaper and the PRISM Quartet. In 2011, in DRAWING UHURU, the artist walked the 5,895 metres to the top of Uhuru (Freedom) Peak, Kilimanjaro, to unfurl a drawing of the Tahitian flag that he drew on his ascent. 
He was a visiting professor at the Centre des Métiers d’Arts de Polynésie Française between 2012 and 2016, where he directed MANAVA, a series of workshops and an exhibition project that sought to revisit the ethnographic collection of the Musée de Tahiti through contemporary works. 

In 2014, he exhibited THE BOTANIST, a visual account of the legend of the breadfruit tree through early English botanical initiatives in the Pacific, at Collectors Contemporary in Singapore. His next projects, THE BOTANICAL FACTORY I & II were respectively presented by Art Production Fund at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas and was part of the exhibition Made by … Feito por Brasileiros at Cidade Matarazzo, São Paulo. 

In 2016, he participated in ‘ŌRAMA, the first exhibition of ‘ŌRAMA Studio, a Tahiti-based artist collective of which he is a founding member, at the Musée de Tahiti et des Iles. 

In 2017, his work TE ATUA VAHINE MANA RA O PERE – The Dawn where the Fauves come to Quench their Thirst an installation where he weaves Pere’s narratives with the many nuclear experiments in the Pacific, opens at the 1st Honolulu Biennial; a mural covering 4500m2 of the MHKA – Museum of Contemporary Art, Antwerp entitled Te fanau’a ‘una’una na te Tumu: THE SENTINELS, in the exhibition A Temporary Institute of Futures; and ME’TIA – An Island Standing, the first of a new series of video works, in Tidalectics at TBA21 / Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna; which was also installed at Le Fresnoy, Tourcoing and the Museum of Modern Art in Dubrovnik, Croatia. 

In 2018, Alexander Lee designed the new logo for Air Tahiti Nui; CANOPUS, an intangible memorial to commemorate the 50th anniversary of France’s most powerful detonation in the Pacific, in the form of a fashion show, is on display in the Gardens of the Territorial Assembly of French Polynesia; and Alexander Lee: NO’ANO’A, a visual sketch on painting and exoticism around the myth of Tahiti and Paul Gauguin, is on display at Marisa Newman Projects, NY.

In 2019, Alexander Lee paints A cause du déluge, a 42-metre long mural in the Great Hall of the CAC, Vilnius, Lithuania. In 2021, his sculpture ‘ŌFA’I, Pierre Lune, is installed in the Village de Lahaymeix, Vent des Forêts (Meuse, France); and is part of the exhibition EXPOSURE: Native Art and Political Ecology at the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico. 

With the support of Air Tahiti Nui.