GALLERY 881
881 East Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC
Canada V6A 3Y1
gallery881.com
@gallery881_
“Where I’m From” Exhibition by
Jeremy Jude Lee & Megan Kwan
Opening Reception:
February 10, 2024 from 12 -5 pm
Exhibition:
February 10 - March 9, 2024
Artist Talk:
Saturday, February 23, 2024 from 1 - 3pm
With generous support from the Strathcona BIA and the Vancouver Art Walk.
Artist Statement
Where I’m From contemplates (be)longing, lineage, and the nature of evolving dreams passed down through generations as (grand)children of immigrants. The collective exhibition, led by Vancouver artists Jeremy Jude Lee and Megan Kwan, includes a site-specific installation, focusing on cinematic imagery in conversation with physical objects and familiar locations specific to their Asian-Canadian experience.
Lee and Kwan’s practice examines self-portraiture—embracing aspects of their cross-cultural identities that they struggled to accept in the past. The photographic work depicts narratives of leisure, tenderness of friendship and the fleeting nature of memory. The installation works are everyday artifacts that represent the resourcefulness, dreams, and sacrifices of generations before. Together, these works create an immersive installation that expresses the mutual influence of Asian culture in a Western world.
The title of the exhibition, Where I’m From, speaks to the concept of home for those who live on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations also known as “Vancouver.” Having both been born and raised in the Lower Mainland but still perceived as foreign, Where I’m From, is a homage to the past revisiting familiar places but documented with a renewed perspective while redefining past beliefs of belonging.
The process of creating this series of artworks was deeply collaborative and made possible by the contributions of Jacky Huang, Esther Joh, Rachel Kwan, Ciara Kosai, Sabrina Wong, James Jin, Jason Chu, Long Xi Vlessing, and Xin.
Artist Bios
Jeremy Jude Lee (He/Him) is an artist and photographer based in Vancouver, Canada. He is known for his storytelling narratives of nostalgia — inspired by cinema, skate culture, and music.
Jeremy’s photography work has been featured in publications such as Montecristo Magazine, HYPEBEAST Magazine, Editorial Magazine, Highsnobiety, Magazine-B and more.
A graduate from Emily Carr University of Art + Design with a BFA in Photography, he has been working as a photographer in the city for over 10 years working with brands such as Canon, Lululemon, and Arc’teryx while continuing to pursue his personal artistic practice.
Jeremy aims to share narratives surrounding the local Asian-Canadian experience, using forms of selfless self-portraiture. His projects in this vein — “Myth & Reality” and “Chinatown Forever” were featured by BOOOOOOOM.com, Meta’s 2021 “AAPI Heritage Month” Campaign, and exhibited at “The Break Room” by OCIN. Jeremy’s most recent work, “Parker Place”, was featured on i-D Magazine’s “Your Month in Photos” in April.
In 2022, Jeremy self published his first book, “Montage,” a compilation of film photographs organized by tone and color. The book launch included an exhibition hosted at SORT and Alterior / A Living Taste. His book is currently available at the OR Gallery and Gallery 881.
IG: @jeremyjudelee
website : jeremyjudelee.com
CV: https://read.cv/jeremyjudelee
Megan Kwan (She/Her) is a Queer Chinese-Canadian art director, designer, artist and founder of the creative studio and collective, Super Sensitive Studios (SSS). Her professional and personal practice focuses on collaboration and visual storytelling to explore ever-evolving questions of identity, grief and belonging.
An alumni of Emily Carr University of Art + Design with a BDes in Communication Design, Megan has 7+ years in the creative industry. Her interdisciplinary work has been featured in HYPEBEAST, Dazed, Booooooom, exhibited in Ranger Station Art Gallery, Vancouver’s Science World, “The Breakroom” by OCIN, and was one of two Canadian participants for Design School Kolding’s International DesignCamp15. She has a wide range of experience working with growing start-ups, design agencies, and global brands, and collaborating with independent filmmakers, artists and non-profit organizations. Megan has led creative teams locally, such as TEDxECUAD’s inaugural event, and internationally taking her to the UK, Denmark, and South Korea.
Megan’s empathy-lead work strives to express the shared feelings of individual experience that ultimately connect us all through a design lens. Notably, after the passing of her mother in 2015, her award winning project “Of Loss and Grief” continues to explore the journey of grief through the objects that still remain. More recently, her collaborative projects “Chinatown Forever” and “Pretty Boys,” revisit the inter-generational Asian-Canadian experience of a cross-cultural identity. In addition, she is preparing her solo exhibition “Begin Again” at Slice of Life Gallery in September 2024, which aims to showcase the emotional and physical experience of starting over.
IG: @supersensitivestudios
CV: https://read.cv/megankwan
Jeremy Jude Lee, Where I’m From
Thank you!
Participating businesses include: Printmaker Studio, Sunrise Soya Foods, Sunrise Market, Coolite Bamboo Products, CINCO Drink Co, Allegra – Vancouver, and Alterior/A Living Taste. The process of creating the series of artworks was deeply collaborative and made possible by the contributions of Jacky Huang, Hwahyoo Joh, Rachel Kwan, Ciara Kosai, Sabrina Wong, James Jin, Jason Chu, Long Xi Vlessing, and Xin.