Born in 1978 Hong Kong, China. He graduated from Chinese University of Hong Kong and now lives and works in Taipei.
Lee Kit’s works range from painted fabrics, installations that enclose paintings, ready-made objects, video projections, to performative works that address seemingly ordinary daily rituals, concerned with redefining how we identify with the everyday. He has in recent years presented a wide range of works that aim to intertwine the boundaries between art and daily life, focusing on daily objects and ordinary practices. This is achieved by pieces that often generate multiple, contradictory narratives, transforming exhibition spaces and upstaging a tension between what is real and artificial, still and theatrical.
Lee Kit’s novel environments are rendered through ready-made objects and the use of his signature cardboard-paintings. Merging with video-projections, they establish a silent dialogue amongst equals that adds a further dimension to the artist’s practice. Through a measured and subtle approach to his mediums, Lee Kit offers a model of resistance to constraint, be it existential, political or social. His intentionally mixed messages court intimacy and detachment differently suggesting the possibility that artistic practice and life merge in unexpected and transformative ways.
His pieces can be understated and undemonstrative, but this modesty is nostalgic, lyrical and often surprisingly beautiful. His subject matter is inherently local – everyday life in Hong Kong, the need for memory, community and freedom, stimulating our perception of the reality and fantasy. His works are intuitive acts that encompass his reflection on his personal life as well as the impersonal surroundings, exploring feelings that are powerful because of their uncertainty. For the artist, he is not expressing an emotion but an attitude.
His recent solo exhibitions include “Disco In The Museum - I’ll Take(A)”, Hong-gah Museum, Taipei, China, 2023; “Retain a desolate face”, Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei, China, 2022; “The gazing eyes won’t lie”, Massimo De Carlo(MDC), Hong Kong, China, 2020; “Resonance of a sad smile”, Art Sonje Center, Seoul, South Korea, 2019; “We used to be more sensitive”, Hara Museum, Tokyo, Japan, 2018; “Linger on, your lit-up shade”, Museo Casa Masaccio Centro perl’Arte Contemporanea, San Giovanni Valdarno, Italy, 2018; “The Enormous Space: Lee Kit & Cui Jie Double Solo Exhibition”, OCAT Shenzhen Museum, Shenzhen, China, 2018; “The more I ignore you, the closer you get”, The Cube Space, Taipei, China, 2017; “I’ve been doing some thinking over these last few days”, AIKE, Shanghai, China, 2016; “A small sound in your head”, S.M.A.K., Gent, Belgium, 2016; “Hold your breath, dance slowly”, Burnet Gallery, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, USA, 2016; “And” at AIKE, Shanghai, China, 2014; “You”, Cattle Depot Artist Village, Hong Kong, China, 2014; “Every Breath You Take”, Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai, China, 2012; “A Suitcase”, AIKE, Palermo, Italy, 2009. His selected group exhibitions include “RAM HIGHLIGHT 2019: Before the Whistle Blows”, Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai, China, 2019; “15TH Lyon Biennale”, Lyon, France, 2019; “close”, Crane Gallery, Gaoxiong, China, 2019; “Something About Flowers”, Hospitality, Cologne, Germany, 2018; “International Contemporary Art Exhibition”, Yerevan, Armenia, 2018; “How to live #2 at Roppongi”, ShugoArts, Tokyo, Japan, 2018; “These painters' painters”, ROH Projects, Jakarta, Indonesia, 2018; “Rehearsal”, Tai Kwun, Hong Kong, China, 2018; “Interval in Space”, NAIRS, Switzerland, 2017; “All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace”, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France, 2017; “Jing Shen – The act of painting in contemporary China”, PAC Museum of Contemporary Art, Milan, Italy, 2015; “Sharjah Biennial 12: The past, the present, the possible”, Sharjah, UAE, 2015; “Kiev Biennial”, Kiev, Ukraine, 2014; “Hugo Boss Asia Art Award Finalists Exhibition”, Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai, China, 2013; “The Ungovernables”, New Museum, New York, 2012; “Print/Out”, MoMA, New York, 2012; “What Should I Do To Live Your Life?”, Sharjah Art Foundation, Beit al Serkal, UAE, 2012; “1 Degree of Separation”, the Chinese Art Centre, Manchester, 2009; “Sprout From White Night”, Bonnier Kuntshall, Stockholm, 2008. He has been selected to represent Hong Kong at the 55th Venice Biennale, Venice, 2013; is the recipient of the Art Futures Award at ArtHK in 2012, and is also one of the seven artists shortlisted for the inaugural Hugo Boss Asia Art Award in 2013.