LEE MAXEY

BE NOT AFRAID

October 30 - December 4, 2021

Olympia is pleased to present Be Not Afraid, a solo exhibition of recent egg tempera paintings by Lee Maxey. Though situated in a familiar domestic space, the images fixate on ordinary objects and scenes and transform them into queer emblems of a controlling, mystical world.

Lee’s paintings revel in a world of spiritual otherness that borders on paranoia. Blatant symbols—an alarm, a rainbow, a crucifix— investigate the meaning of perception and storytelling. A gleaming blue gas stovetop becomes a portal; in the small space of a bathroom tile, the granite texture flickers between a landscape and a mushroom cloud. Maxey’s approach to creating the kind of space that allows for multiple interpretations is in part a response to the religious Christian upbringing she chose to leave behind, where for centuries art relied on fixed symbols in order to aid in the study of scripture and to facilitate worship. Egg tempera further connects the work to a tradition of spiritual storytelling. The slow and deliberate technique the medium requires extends to the looking experience of the paintings themselves.

**Lee Maxey**, *Alert (after Wojnarowicz)*, 2021, Graphite and watercolor on panel and paper, 12 x 15 x 1.5 in (30.5 x 38.1 x 3.8 cm)

Born in Arkansas, Lee Maxey lives and works in Brooklyn. Recent exhibitions include a solo show at the Tribeca artist-run space Tribeca Hercules Art/Studio Program; group shows at Olympia and The Bureau of General Services: Queer Division; and a two-person exhibition in the 2019 SPRING/BREAKArt Show, all in NYC. Lee is an alumna of the Fire Island Artist Residency. She received her MFA in 2016 from Boston University and her BFA in 2011 from the University of Central Arkansas. She currently teaches painting at Brooklyn College.

Be Not Afraid is accompanied by a book with an essay by Chantal Soong Lee and poetry by Sarah M. Sala.

Olympia will host a poetry reading on November 6th, in conjunction with the show. Participants include Stephon Lawrence, Zefyr Lisowski, Sahar Romani, Sarah M. Sala, Janelle Tan, and Robert Whitehead.

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