I always knew it was you out there.
James David Lee
March 8 - April 26, 2025
Opening reception March 8, 2025
In I always knew it was you out there, each painting contains dozens of perspectives and compositions that ripple, shift, and unravel in all directions at once.
Recalling the ‘angle of totality,’ a technique developed by 10th century artist Guo Xi to create multiple viewpoints in a single painting, these landscapes invite the viewer to wander through a world outside of distance and time. To hover over a cliff, look at a river a thousand miles away, and touch it.
The paintings take inspiration from a collaboration with San Francisco-based poet Patrick Holian. Holian’s poem, called ‘Cavalry,’ explores the shape of desire and loss, playing out over shifting landscapes and uncertain time. The language of the poem appears in the title of each painting (and in the name of this show) and is often written into the paintings themselves. This introduces yet another perspective, as the language of the poem recasts each painting in new light.
James David Lee (b. 1983) is a painter and bookmaker who lives and works in San Francisco. Lee studied book arts at Yale University, art history at the Sorbonne University in Paris, classical Chinese literature at National Taiwan University, and holds a JD from Stanford Law School