CONTACT
Jocelyn Lee
jocelyn@jocelynleestudio.com
917-536-3423
SALES INQUIRIES
Huxley Parlour Gallery, London gallery@huxleyparlour.com +44 (0)207 4344 319
Flatland Gallery, Amsterdam info@flatlandgallery.com +31(0)203305321
SERVICES
Jocelyn is available for private mentoring and portfolio workshops by zoom or in person.
Please contact her for more information.
“I photograph because I am interested in people, what it means to be alive, and how we make sense of the world. Whether I am photographing on assignment, or for personal work, the same ideas direct my attention. On the psychological and narrative level, I am interested in looking at states of being: birth, childhood, aging, physical fragility, death, sensuality, the animal world and people in nature.”
Biography
Jocelyn Lee was born in Naples, Italy and received her B.A. in philosophy and visual arts from Yale University, and her M.F.A in photography from Hunter College. In 2020 she received a Maine Arts Commission Individual Artist Grant, NEA; in 2013 she received a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, NEA; and in 2001 she received a Guggenheim Fellowship.
She is represented by Huxley Parlour in London, England, and Flatland Gallery in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Lee has been making psychological portraits for 40 years. Since her move to Maine in 2014 the landscape has taken on a greater role in her work. Her recent work has been made largely out doors with a medium format film camera. All the images, be they of animals, plants or humans beings, describe the tactile and sensual nature of the world and our place, as embodied beings, within this material continuum.
Jocelyn in her studio
Most recently Lee has been working on portraits that speak to the invisibility of mature women and, with her sensual treatment of these subjects, calls them back into relevance in a society that has deemed them undesirable and invisible. In 2020 Minor Matters Books published Sovereign, a monograph of Lee’s naked portraits of women between the ages of 50 and 95, which included an introduction by April Watson, Senior Curator at the Nelson Atkins Museum.
Late September
Lee’s first monograph Nowhere but here, was published by Steidl Publishers in 2010 with a forward by poet Sharon Olds. In 1996 her work The Youngest Parents was published by DoubleTake Books and The Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University in collaboration with Dr. Robert Coles.
Fiona and Michael
Her works are in the collections of Maison Europeén de la Photographie, Paris, France; The Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany; The Yale Museum of Art, New Haven, CT; The List Center at MIT, Cambridge, MA; The Portland Museum of Art; Portland, ME; The Nelson Atkins Museum, Kansas City, MO.; The Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME; The Haggerty Museum of Art, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; The Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME; The Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, N.C.; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; The Bates College Museum of Art. Lewiston, ME; The Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockport, ME; The Margulies Collection; The Agnes Gund Collection, among numerous other private collections.
Photograph by Smith Galtney at Panther Pond
She has taught for over 20 years including ten years at Princeton University and ten years at the Maine College of Art and Design; and has been a visiting artist at The Maine Media MFA program, Bowdoin College, MIddlebury College, New York University, the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Anderson Ranch and others. Teaching and talking with students remains a significant part of her practice. She loves nothing more than engaging with students about what it means to use a camera to “see” the world and better understand our relationship to and within it.
In 2015 she and her husband Brian Urquhart founded SPEEDWELL Contemporary, a non-profit artist run gallery dedicated to supporting the work of mid-to-late career women whose work was flying under the radar.
Image of Abby Shahn installing her “Rust Room” as a part of her retrospective “Abby Shahn—50 years” at SPEEDWELL in 2018.
Education
City University of New York at Hunter College, M.F.A.
Yale University, B.A. in studio art and philosophy.
Awards/Grants
2020 Maine Arts Commission Individual Artist Grant, NEA
2014 Purchase Prize, Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME
2013 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, New York, NY
2003 International Association of Arts Critics/USA, Award for Best Emerging Artist Exhibition in New England
2001 Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship
2000/2002 The MacDowell Colony, Residency in Peterborough, NH
1994 The Banff Center for the Arts, Residency in Banff, Alberta, Canada
1993 Texas Photographic Society Production Grant, Austin, TX.
Collections
Maison Européen de la Photographie, Paris, FR
The Yale Museum of Art, New Haven, CT
The List Center at MIT, Boston, MA
The Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany
The Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME
The Bates Museum of Art, Lewiston, ME
The Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, Durham, NC
The University of New England, The Stephen K Halpert Collection, Portland, ME
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
The Farnsworth Museum, Rockland, ME
The Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME.
The Nelson-Atikins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO
The Haggerty Museum of Art, Milwaulkee, WI
The Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine
The Agnes Gund Collection
The Martin Z. Margulies Collection
Selected Exhibitions
2024
New Acquisitions, The Stephen K. Halpert Collection of Photography at The University of New England, Portland, ME
2021
Paris Photo, Huxley-Parlour Gallery, November
NAKED BODY, Museum Kurhaus Cleve, German (Group)
2020
30 Years of Women, Jackson Fine Arts, Atlanta, GA (Group)
On the Basis of Art: 150 Years of Women at Yale, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT (Group)
2020 Vision, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM (Group)
2019
Flux, Corey Daniels Gallery, Wells, Maine (Group)
Yummy Yummy, Flatland Gallery, Amsterdam, NL (Group)
(DÉ)POSER, Maison Européenne de la Photographie,Paris, France
Domestic Comfort, Flatland Gallery, Amsterdam, NL (Group)
2018
The Appearance of Things, Huxley-Parlour, London, England (Solo)
The Appearance of Things, Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockland, ME (Solo)
Lived Space, Architecture and Humans, deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, MA (Group)
2017
Art Basel, June, 2017
Last Light, room-sized installation, The Karachi Biennial, Karachi, Pakistan
Reconsidering Adolescence, The Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine
Summer Show, Pace MacGill Gallery, NY, NY
Converging to Center-Photographs from the Collection of Andrew Szegedy-Maszak, Wesleyan University
HE/SHE/THEY, Rose Gallery, L.A.
2014
About Face – Contemporary Portraiture, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO
Hunting, Flatland Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Insights, The Print Space, London, England
2013
The Kids are All Right, John Michael Kohler Arts Centre, Sheboygan, WI
New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship recipient
Piecework, The PMA Biennial, Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME
Biennial Purchase Prize, The Portland Museum of Art
Dark Blue: Water as Protagonist, The Haggerty Museum of Art, Milwaukee, WI
2012
Jocelyn Lee, (Solo), Flatland Gallery, Paris, France
2010
Jocelyn Lee, Nowhere but here, (Solo), Pace MacGill Gallery, NY, NY
2008
Jocelyn Lee, Feature Photography, The National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Jocelyn Lee, Last Light, (Solo), University of Southern Maine, Portland, ME
2007
Jocelyn Lee, Grounded, (Solo), Pace MacGill Gallery, NY, NY (Solo)
Jocelyn Lee, Children’s Games, (Solo), Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockport,ME
Presumed Innocent, Photographs of Children, The DeCordova Museum of Art, Waltham, MA
2006
Jocelyn Lee, Youth, (Solo) The University of Maine Museum of Art, Bangor, ME
2005
Made in the Shade, Pace MacGill Gallery, NY, NY
She Is—Perceptions of Female Identity, Stonehill College, Easton, MA
New Work: Jocelyn Lee and Sa Schloff, Zero Station, Portland, ME
Sportsman Redux, The Institute of Contemporary Art, Portland, ME
2004
New Acquisitions: The Global and the Local, Bates College Museum of Art, Lewiston, ME
Sites Unseen, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME
Standing Figure, The Bernard Toale Gallery, Boston, MA
Maine in America, Images from the Permanent Collection, Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME
2003
Jocelyn Lee: Portraits, The Bernard Toale Gallery, Boston, MA (Solo)
Jocelyn Lee: New Work, The University of Maine at Farmington (Solo)
“Swim Suits and Sports”, Jackson Fine Art, Atlanta, GA
Undomesticated Interiors, Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA.
Selections from the Bruce Brown Collection, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME
6 From Maine, Hampshire College, Amherst, MA
Taking Pictures, ICON Contemporary Art, Brunswick, ME
2002
Preview/Review: Recent Work by David Hilliard, Jocelyn Lee, Abelardo Morell, Deborah Bright, Virginia Beahan and Laura McPhee, Bernard Toale Gallery, Boston, MA
5 Fictions, Bernard Toale Gallery, Boston, MA
Genetic Imprints, DNA Gallery, Provincetown, MA
Recent Acquisitions, Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME
2001
Jocelyn Lee: New Work, LFL Gallery, NY, NY (Solo)
Local Color, The Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME
Summer Show, DNA Gallery, Provincetown, MA
2000
The Lois Foster Exhibition of Boston Area Artists, The Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
Undoing Motherhood, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME
Photographing Maine 1840-2000, Maine Coast Artists, Rockport
New Beauty--A Girl's Story, Maine Photo Co-op, Portland, ME (Solo)
1999
Recent Developments, Silverstein Gallery, NY, NY
Still, Maine Coast Artists, Rockport, ME. (Solo)
1997
The Youngest Parents, national traveling exhibition, The Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, Durham, NC. (2 solo shows)
The Youngest Parents, The National Humanities Center, Chapel Hill, N.C.
1996
4 Photographers, Icon Contemporary Art, Brunswick, ME
Backyard, The Dead Space Gallery, Portland, ME (Solo)
Press & Publications
2024
Two shows of photography – and a limitless array of techniques, The Portland Press Herald
2023
The Last Lighthouse Keeper in America, The New Yorker Magazine, Portrait of Sally Snowman
2022
Why Was Joshua Held for More Than Two Years for Someone Else’s Crimes?, The New York Times, Portrait of Joshua
2021
Jocelyn Lee’s Older Women in the Nude, The New Yorker, By Margaret Talbot, November
Sovereign, Monograph published by Minor Matters Books with an introduction by Dr April M. Watson, Curator of the Nelson Atkins Museum.
Jocelyn Lee, 59: Photographer Capturing the Beauty of Time, by David Stewart for Ageist
Read Elysian, Authentic States, by Debra Spark, Spring
Jocelyn Lee, 59: Photographer Capturing the Beauty of Time, Ageist, By David Stewart, April
IX Design Magazine, Photography is the story I fail to put into words, March
2020
How Jocelyn Lee Investigates the World, Decor Maine, August 2020
In search of self-love, Portugal Vogue, May 2020
The Appearance of Things by Jocelyn Lee, This is Paper, May 2020
Marilynne Robinson’s Essential American Stories, The New Yorker Magazine, portrait of Marilynne Robinson, October 2020
Sajinyesul, Appearance of Things
2019
Art Review: Corey Daniels, Portland Press Herald, June
Untitled image featured in Art Section of The Women’s Issue, The Harvard Advocate, Spring
Così è, se vi pare, Vogue Italia, 2019
Jocelyn Lee Portraits of Women and Girls, I Love You Magazine, Berlin, Germany
Jocelyn Lee, by Kyra Schmidt for aint–bad: An Independent Publisher of Contemporary Art, March
Derriere les Apparances, Causette Magazine, March
Happy Reader #13 Penguin Classics, Contributors include Geoff Dyer / Deborah Levy / Sadie Stein
BODY, Nathalie Heschendorfer, Thames and Hudson
2018
Jocelyn Lee’s Painterly Portraits of Nudes, The New Yorker Magazine, Photo Booth Feature, June
Jocelyn Lee - The Appearance of Things, The Eye of Photography, July
Jocelyn Lee: The Appearance of Things, Fisheye Magazine, June
Jocelyn Lee: The Appearance of Things at CMCA, Aline Smithson, Lenscratch, June
Transient Moments, Aesthetica Magazine, April
The Unclothed Body is Our Primary Vessel : Photographing Vulnerability, Miss Rosen, AnOther Magazine, April
Maine’s Mini-Mecca: Contemporary on the Coast, Greg Morell, artscope Magazine, July
Jocelyn Lee, Jean-Paul Gavard-Perret, Carnet D'Art, July
Jocelyn Lee’s first UK solo exhibition surveys the Appearance of Things, Lucy Bourton, It’s Nice That, April
Jocelyn Lee's Melancholy Photographs of Women Through Every Stage of Life, Creative Boom, April
Jocelyn Lee Explores the Cycle of Life in Photography Exhibition in Rockland, Bob Keyes, Maine Today (Portland Press Herald), June
10 Must-See Artists at AIPAD’s Photography Show, Artsy, April
Photo London Top 5, FAD Magazine, by Lee Sharrock, May
Features section, DownEast Magazine, June
The Appearance of Things: vita e more nelle foto di Jocelyn Lee, Claudia Fuggetti, Collateral Magazine, July
Jocelyn Lee Captures The Appearance of Things, Rosie Flanagan, ignant magazine, July
Art Review, Dan Kany, Portland Press Herald, July
The Body Now, Monograph published by Thames and Hudson, Edited by Nathalie Herschdorfer
2013
Jocelyn Lee: Women are Beautiful, Photo Raw, Helsinki, Finland
2013 Portland Museum of Art Biennial: Piece Work, News Release, Portland Museum of Art, Kristen Levesque
2012
Creatures, The New Yorker, Text by Marisa Silver, Photographs by Jocelyn Lee, December
Jocelyn Lee: Naakt is kwetsbaar is schoon, Snoeks, Text by Leslie Van Hecke
Genc., Fotograftaki Kadin!, Photographs by Jocelyn Lee, May
2011
Nowhere But Here, Monograph, Photographs by Jocelyn Lee , Steidl Publishing
2008
Presumed Innocent, Monograph, The DeCordova Museum. Book publication to accompany exhibition. February
2007
The New Yorker, Review of Grounded, Pace MacGill Gallery, May
2005
The New Yorker, Review of Made in the Shade at Pace MacGill Gallery, August
2003
The Power of Paper, The Boston Phoenix, review of show at Bernard Toale Gallery, June
2001
The New Yorker, "Jocelyn Lee", review of LFL Gallery Show, May
The Village Voice, Voice Choices: "Jocelyn Lee", review, May
Local Color: 6 Maine Photographers show contemporary work at PMA, Antiques and the Arts Weekly, February
Local Color, Maine Sunday Telegram, April
2000
Artists explore transformations, real and implied, The Boston Globe, Review of the exhibition at The Rose Art Museum, December
Monograph Paperback publication of The Youngest Parents, W.W. Norton and Co. and DoubleTake Books
Photographing Maine 1840-2000, catalog and CD-ROM, Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Maine Coast Artists, Rockport, Maine
1998
The Times Literary Supplement, review of The Youngest Parents, March
1997
The Youngest Parents, Text by Robert Coles; photographs by Jocelyn Lee and John Moses. W.W. Norton and Co. and DoubleTake Books
The Today Show, interview with Robert Coles and presentation of photographs from The Youngest Parents. July 1.
DoubleTake magazine, The Youngest Parents, photographs by Jocelyn Lee and John Moses. Durham, North Carolina. Issue # 7. Pages 31-40.
Publishers Weekly, review The Youngest Parents, February 10.
Boston Phoenix, review The Youngest Parents, June.
The New Yorker, review in "Briefly Noted": The Youngest Parents. Sept.
The New Leader, “How it Goes for Some Folks," Review, New York. Sept.
The Wilson Journal, photograph from The Youngest Parents, The Smithsonian Institute, Washington, DC.
Un Siècle de Liens Amoureux Aimer, photograph from The Youngest
Parents, Editions du Chene, Paris, France.
1996
Art New England, “Four Photographers," review of exhibition at Icon Contemporary Art