As Paul Chan writes: “It never occurred to me that I would find the measure of reality in a painting.”
Marta Lee’s canvases redefine the measure of reality in the digital age—not with screen resolution, not with news feeds, not with algorithmic color. Hers is a world touched entirely by hand.
🎨 The Measure of Reality: 1:1
Lee’s most striking trait is painting objects at life-size. A receipt, a cassette cover, a knitted fabric… All match their real-world dimensions. This choice acts like a contract between artist and viewer: “This world is shared. I am here. You are here.” Each painting stands as a small cosmos woven from everyday objects. The colors—far softer than they appear on screen—invite the viewer into a visual silence. In Chan’s words, “a people’s Tiepolo”; baroque depth gives way to domestic intimacy.
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🧺 Object, Memory, Universe
Lee’s still lifes are less arrangements of things than personal maps of time. Stacked boxes, half-finished skeins of yarn, candy tins… These compositions oscillate between the ordinariness of daily life and the ritual of memory. Looking at one painting feels as if the artist is building her own Noah’s Ark: every canvas carries a memory to be saved. Every object is a testimony saying, “I was here.”
🖼️ “IRL” Against the Digital
On screen, colors lie; scale distorts. In real space, dimension, light, and distance draw the viewer onto the stage. Lee’s paintings are not made to be “viewed” but to be inhabited. IRL (In Real Life) is not merely a physical realm here; it is an ethical stance. Amid the slipperiness of the digital world, Lee’s pictures become an act of “holding ground”—a form of resistance: “I am not abandoning reality. I am here.”
Exhibition Details
Marta Lee: 11:11
📍 Tappeto Volante, 126 13th Street, Gowanus, Brooklyn
🗓️ Through 2 November 2025
🎨 New works in mixtures of acrylic, crayon, oil, and pastel
💬 Apartment No:26 Note
While painting everyday objects, Marta Lee “takes the pulse of modern reality.” In the digital age, every hand-made brushstroke is a declaration of existence. The “11:11” exhibition redefines the beauty of remembering, slowing down, and being real.
