Things to make you wonder

Nancy Lew Lee sculpture exhibit to open at Alliance

NARROWSBURG, NY — An exhibit of sculptures created by Nancy Lew Lee will open at the Alliance Gallery in Narrowsburg on Saturday, February 23, with an artist’s reception from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. The exhibit will be on view through March 22.

“I love to travel, to see new places and things,” said sculptor Lee, who was born in a small village in southern China before her family moved to Hong Kong and then settled in Brooklyn. “Some of my inspiration comes from the canyon country of Utah, the mountains of Idaho and the volcanoes of Ecuador and Hawaii.”

But it is the place she calls home that has the biggest influence on Lee’s contemporary sculptures, which are made with wood, bones, shredded bark, stone, and dried mud. “I live on top of a mountain on 60 acres in western Sullivan County. Walking around here, I still find new things that make me wonder,” she says. “Some of my recent work comes from seeing anthropomorphic forms in the delicate growth of twigs. I view some of these works as figures leaning against and supporting each other. These family groups of twigs seem fragile, but are actually quite strong because the individual members are interlaced.”

Lee earned a Master of Fine Arts Degree from Pratt Institute, specializing in sculpture, and went on to take classes at the Art Students League and the Brooklyn Museum Art School, where she studied with sculptor Masami Kodama. She currently balances her time between teaching art at Fallsburg High School (where she is also department chair) and making art in her studio.

The exhibit, free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Delaware Valley Arts Alliance, the Arts Council for Sullivan County, NY, and is made possible in part with funding from the Visual Arts Program of the New York State Council on the Arts.

Alliance Gallery is located at the Delaware Arts Center at 37 Main Street. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

For more information visit ArtsAllianceSite.org or call 845-252-7576.