LA MAISON
DE RENDEZ-VOUS

Margaret Lee
I.C.W.U.M.
3.9.-10.10.2020

Reciprocation is an elusive thing. Stop short of articulation. It’s OK to make yourself unintelligible, I c what u mean. – M.L., 2020

MISAKO & ROSEN is pleased to present I.C.W.U.M. a solo exhibition by New York based artist Margaret Lee within LA MAISON DE RENDEZ-VOUS.
The exhibition will be on view from September 3-October 10, 2020. The gallery will also be presenting this body of work on-line from August 20^th as part of the art fair JUNE, to be hosted by Hauser & Wirth: www.june.life/

In 2009, Margaret Lee founded the artist-run space 179 Canal and is currently a partner in the New York based gallery 47 Canal. A selection of the artist’s recent solo and group exhibitions includes: (2020) For a Dreamer of Houses, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX (2016) Duddell’s x DMA: Concentrations HK: Margaret Lee,Duddell’s, Hong Kong, (2016) China de, da, do…da, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, Cambridge. Public collections include: The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Dallas Museum of Art, Dikeou Collection, Denver and the Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo.

For this new body of work entitled, I.C.W.U.M., the artist facetiously mis-initializes the commonly used phrase “I see what you mean”. This obfuscation signals a shift from the literal to the abstract; a departure for an artist most known for her deconstruction of symbols of representation. Though specific elements such as newspaper and rope carry over from earlier series, this body of work thinks through the psychoanalytic conceptualization of “anasemia”, a problematizing of meaning without determination, a process just barely tethered but holding on nonetheless.

Included within the exhibition is also a grouping of decoupaged boxes. Collected over the months of pandemic quarantine, ranging from discarded butter, sugar, soap, condiments, etc. …, these boxes serve as a diary of sorts, marking the passage of time and a creative practice under lockdown.