studio visits
studio visits
Mixing minimalism with realism, LA-based artist Joseph Lee‘s layered portraits use oil paints that are applied in thick, textured strokes. While the distinct facial features of his subjects are distorted, the movement and colors in his paintings provide visual clues that capture his intentions and emotions, bringing the viewer closer to both the artist and the subject. When using his talents off the canvas — like he did recently with a pair of PRO-Keds Royals — the result is similar. On the one-of-one sneakers, he uses color and texture to create a style inspired by the current moment. Pulling back the curtain on translating his aesthetic to a pair of shoes,
Lee invited HYPEBEAST into his studio as he customized the exclusive PRO-Keds. Inspired by the evolution of his art career and material choice, Lee has titled the painted shoes, "Walk Me To My Happy Place," and the canvas, "Cumberland." One lucky winner will win the customized PRO-Keds, the canvas and three pairs of Keds of their choice-- head to Instagram to enter the giveaway.
“I’m not this esoteric artist. I just do what I enjoy,” explains the self-taught talent. Working backward from Lee’s finished works is the best way to observe how elements from the everyday have inspired his impressive portraits. Upon closer inspection, it appears that the base image for his portraits is pulled from the pages of a magazine or a simple picture. But the artist’s practice has evolved from painting references from magazines, making his process distinctly his own with “bits and pieces of whatever feels good.” With this approach, one might get a sense of what Lee is like in real life just from looking at his work: a devoted Suns fan who was born in Phoenix; an appreciator of the Old Masters and their technique and discipline; and someone who’s immensely curious in those around him.
In the latest installment of the Studio Visits series, HYPEBEAST spoke to Lee to get a better sense of the personal attributes that make up the artist and to take a closer look as he applies his hand to the PRO-Keds Royal, which will be available exclusively via giveaway.
Studio Visits: Joseph Lee
Exploring the otherworldly artworks of the Brooklyn-based painter and sculptor.
Los Angeles, California
josephleeart.com
Yok & Sheryo
Let’s start by sharing tips for viewing your paintings. What are the key elements to understanding your works?
I don’t necessarily have a starting point, but I create focal points. I like the mixture of minimalism and realism. For me, having a minimal background [places] focus on the subject. From there, your eye wanders throughout the subject. I think if you look at my paintings, I have a mind map in the way that I work. I love eyes, so I create a lot of this “eye of the storm,” where everything starts at this core eye and then starts spreading around afterward.
“There’s some sort of parallel
between what people want to put on their bodies and what they want to see surrounding them.”
cj hendry
“It all comes together and it’s like a puzzle that I’m creating, then putting it back in reverse.”
Sheryo: Not as much as we like to. Now, we’re very busy with studio work and traveling to different locations in Southeast Asia.
Yok: Yeah, we’re busy finding places to do installations. It’s our new thing. We also travel often to learn niche handicrafts. We get stoked about going to places like Indonesia and spend months learning how to do Batik and making other local artisan works.
Yok: We would look at our drawings and imagine how it would be great if they were worlds that you could go inside, touch and move around. That's where the installation inspiration came from, I guess.
Sheryo: It was kind of natural, really, a progression from 2D to 3D. Yeah.
What about installations are you both most fascinated by?
Yok: We’re working on an immersive installation at the Paddle 8 auction house at the Lower East Side of New York City. We’re creating this nine-foot wooden sculpture of a middle finger with Donald Trump’s tombstone on top.
Sheryo: It’s this pretty big basement spot. We are making sculptures as well as creating the upholstery and benches. It has a really dingy and dark vibe. It’s kind of a lounge room setting. It’s going to launch this coming fall season.
What are you both working on right now?
Archie: We aim to hire people that are extremely multidisciplinary. But at the same time they don't have to have done everything, because in this studio, Jeff and I have not done everything and the principle of this studio is that we won't.
What most people don't have that Dillon, Phil and Ana all have is the rare layer on top of professionalism and the ability to design — the ability to not have ego, to want to learn, and to want to try things that aren’t comfortable. When you’re uncomfortable, good stuff happens because you’re able to fall back on and grow your basic skill set. Dillon didn't design shoes before he got here — he just wanted to. Now he's a shoe designer. To Phil's earlier point, that's why PLAYLAB is a school.
When you decided to grow your team, what qualities were you looking for in new members?
Dillon: Residency programs and other resources for artists — let’s make a school someday.
Jeff: I want to make a penny press called “Penny, Pressed.” The image that goes on the penny press is a penny. I'm not even sure if that’s legal, but it's in the works. I also want to make more art. I think we need more of it and that everybody thrives off of it.
Archie: I want to do it all. I want to see PLAYLAB continue to thrive and grow and morph and change, and I want to be surprised by it every year. I love the projects we work on, but I love the studio more than anything. The studio is the project because it's art.
What's next for PLAYLAB? Is there something that you've always wanted to design through PLAYLAB that you guys haven't touched yet?
By: Kirsten Chen
Using layers of paint, your signature style for portraits tends to obscure facial features but still captures an intimacy with the subjects. How do you create the faces in your works?
In terms of more abstract works, it’s purely instinctual. I can literally start with a neckline, I can start from the base, from the ear lobe — I’m always taking random chunks of references from different ears or necks or T-shirts, and it’s like a combustion of work that I put onto one canvas. I’m always absorbing different references from numerous sources like magazines, the internet and pictures that I take with people. It all comes together and it’s like a puzzle that I’m creating, then putting it back in reverse. As opposed to when you normally work on a puzzle, you know what you’re working with. I’m working in this other way, where I don’t know what it’s going to look like. Instead, I’m putting pieces together and hoping that something forms out of it.
While your work features other people as the subject, does your personal identity play a role in the work?
Yeah. I started doing portraits because, since I was a kid, I’ve had this insatiable curiosity with people. I’m a total people watcher. There’s nothing that I enjoy more than going on walks by myself or with my wife, and watching people and observing everything. That’s always the thing that fuels my spirit: engaging with the people around me.
What are some of the most important tools in your studio?
I tend to do a lot of the bases in brushwork, so you’ll see an assortment [of brushes here]. There’s everything from these pallet knives to a lot of oil paints. For reference work, you see my camera, but that’s pretty much it. It’s simple. It gets pretty chaotic and crazy, but it starts with a handful of things that I really need. It’s not too much maintenance.
In past interviews, you’ve discussed the role of color in your work and how it relates to certain feelings or emotions. Given that you’re a self-taught artist, is there anything that shapes your approach to color theory and color selection?
Not at all. Just my childhood, just whatever makes me feel good. As I’ve evolved into my art career, I follow a lot of fashion trends. There’s some sort of parallel between what people want to put on their bodies and what they want to see surrounding them. When I look at Pantones or at fashion houses and the colors that they see for seasons ahead, there’s a pattern there. A lot of my recent paintings and palettes have gone to more muted colors — a lot of the taupe, blues and grays… I feel like these are things that I’ve been seeing on people. Prior to that, it was more colorful. It was a lot of these pop-y sensations. And it’s a mixture of emotions of how I’m feeling in the moment and what I observe in people.
I think it really started subconsciously through the references that I see. A lot of the magazine clippings that I’ll see are from fashion editorials as well. By taking a lot of these references and portraits from editorials, I think I naturally started picking up on color trends and things like that. My wife is always on top of it. She’s like my manager and stylist, in terms of anything that’s popping up. I also just pick whatever I like, whether it’s secondhand or something that I see online or passing through a store.
Can you also tell us about the way you sign your name onto your paintings? It’s got a distinct abstracted style.
It’s a connection back to my own childhood, my own roots, but also evolving into what I am today. I have a collection of old calligraphy from my grandfather. He used to do a lot of practice brushwork in this old Asian style. As a kid, I would look through these things and as I got older, I found more of an appreciation for it. Specifically, there’s a confidence in calligraphy that I really admire because it’s very loose, and a lot of it is just a single take of a stroke. There’s no sketching involved.
What are some things that stood out about painting a pair of PRO-Keds instead of a traditional canvas?
Well, I’m using different materials, so I have to use acrylics and fabric paints. Purely from a drying aspect, it’s nice to not have to sit around and wait for paint to dry. Whereas if I did this in oil, it would have taken a couple of days. There’s a fast working process, which I missed. There’s a connection there and the materials that I use. When I use acrylics, it takes me back to when I first started painting. I got started doing acrylics because I couldn’t afford to work in oil paint. So this project takes me back to that place where it’s like, ‘Oh man, I was just having fun.’ The title, “Walk Me To My Happy Place Shoes” takes me back to where I had none of this money, work, or reputation, and none of that stuff mattered. It was just me, being myself and being loose.
The title of your customized PRO-Keds Royals, “Walk Me To My Happy Place Shoes,” is a reference to your past and the act of painting. Is there also a physical space that inspired the sneakers?
Yeah, there’s a physical element too. My studio, where I’m making this stuff is my happy place physically. The pandemic has been a real lesson in, like, when you wipe everything away, what are you and what do you really have? As an artist, I’m used to working isolated, but I also took time to be more introspective and to seek my own internal happy place. I think for people in our generation, we’re so used to finding our happy place through our phones or creating this facade of whatever makes us happy. For me, it was seeking what that answer was. It’s my family. It’s having agency over my life. It’s finding peace and I think all of that kind of correlates to finding my
happy place.
You were also telling me about a pair of PRO-Keds that you own.
The Martellus Bennett x PRO-Keds Sneaker Collaboration. It’s a beautiful pair of shoes and so comfortable. It goes with every outfit and for me, shoes are just one of those things, more so than any other article of clothing, that dictate an overall outfit. As long as the shoes are right, then everything else can just kind of flow into place. I mean, it kind of translates the ‘happy place’ idea. Like, let me just go to that happy place, by wearing the right shoes that make me feel good and comfortable.
What advice do you give to young artists?
I’ve started mentoring young artists and the one thing I always try to get across is working to build your own perspective. With social media and everything around us, it’s easy to follow other people and become a derivative of whatever that is. For me, it’s about putting in that 10,000 hours. I think ultimately when you put in that amount of energy into doing anything, you naturally start to trim down, and focus on a certain style and what you want to do. It’s creating your own perspective. I feel like that’s the highest currency in art, truly having your own eye on things.
To enter the giveaway to win a pair of PRO-Keds Royals and canvas customized by Lee, head over to Instagram. To shop the PRO-Keds Royal, head to the brand’s website where the shoe is available for men and women with prices beginning at $60 USD.
“It all comes together and it’s like a puzzle that I’m creating, then putting it back in reverse.”
“I think for people in our generation, we’re so used to finding our happy place through our phones or creating this facade of whatever makes us happy."
“There’s some sort of parallel
between what people want to put on their bodies and what they want to see surrounding them.”