Artist Showcase | Grace Lillian Lee

Grace Lillian Lee was born in Cairns in 1988. She is a descendant of the Doolah family from Erub (Darnley Island) and her language group is Meriam Mir. In 2010 Lee graduated in Fashion Design at RMIT University in Melbourne and is now recognised as Australia’s leading Indigenous artists and fashion designers.

In 2013, Lee founded the nationally recognised Cairns Indigenous Art Fair Fashion Performance and today her designs and body sculptures are represented at major fashion shows and art exhibitions throughout Australia and overseas.

Lee is deeply interested in exploring relationships between contemporary fashion, design, traditional cultures and communities, and she is particularly focussed on exploring and declaring her cultural connection to Torres Strait Island traditions in contemporary ways.

The Cairns Art Gallery commissioned the first iteration of Lee’s body sculptures in 2015, which were subsequently acquired for the Collection. These sculptural forms brought together traditional weaving techniques, contemporary fashion and body adornment, and incorporated the 'Grasshopper weaving' technique taught to her by mentor and Torres Strait Islander Elder, Uncle Ken Thaiday.

Over the years Lee has received many commissions to produce and exhibit body sculptures based on the early body sculptural works in the Gallery’s Collection.

Since 2015, the Cairns Art Gallery has continued to commission Lee to produce new sculptural work for exhibitions, including ARTNOW FNQ 2017 and Ritual in 2021. Lee’s major installation for ARTNOW FNQ 2017 was purchased for the Gallery Collection by the Cairns Art Gallery Foundation.

In 2024, Lee produced her latest iteration of body sculptures in collaboration with internationally renowned fashion designer, Jean Paul Gaultier. These were exhibited in Jean Paul Gaultier’s Fashion Freak Show at the Brisbane Festival, which Lee described as the pinnacle of her career.

Lee has exhibited extensively in Australia and overseas and her work is represented in major collections, including the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, Sydney; Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide; and Cairns Art Gallery, Queensland.

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Solo Exhibitions | Highlighted Works

Grace Lillian Lee: Body Sculptures
24 Jun - 4 Sep 2016
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Greg Semu, Grace Lillian Lee: Body Sculpture – Acceptance 2016, digital image (altered state), Photograph courtesy Greg Semu and Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne Greg Semu, Grace Lillian Lee: Body Sculpture – Enlightenment 2016, digital image (altered state), Photograph courtesy Greg Semu and Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne Greg Semu, Grace Lillian Lee: Body Sculpture – Empowerment 2016, digital image (altered state), Photograph courtesy Greg Semu and Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne Grace Lillian Lee: Body Sculpture install, Cairns Art Gallery 2016

Group Exhibitions | Highlighted Works

RITUAL: the past in the present
15 May – 21 Aug 2021

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Grace Lillian Lee, Future Floral Woven Forms 2020, canvas, cotton webbing, cane, feathers, coconut palm frond, Courtesy of the artist and studio assistant Monique Burkhead Grace Lillian Lee, Future Floral Woven Forms 2020, canvas, cotton webbing, cane, feathers, coconut palm frond, Courtesy of the artist and studio assistant Monique Burkhead Grace Lillian Lee, Future Floral Woven Forms 2020, canvas, cotton webbing, cane, feathers, coconut palm frond, Courtesy of the artist and studio assistant Monique Burkhead Grace Lillian Lee, Future Floral Woven Forms 2020, canvas, cotton webbing, cane, feathers, coconut palm frond, Courtesy of the artist and studio assistant Monique Burkhead Grace Lillian Lee, Future Floral Woven Forms install, Cairns Art Gallery 2020. Photography: Michael Marzik

Reimagining: Between Tradition and Innovation
17 Oct 2020 – 10 Jan 2021

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Grace Lillian Lee, Red: Acceptance, 2016, cotton webbing, goose feathers, beads, timber cane, cotton and wool thread, Commissioned by Cairns Regional Gallery with the assistance of Friends of the Gallery, 2016 Grace Lillian Lee, White: Enlightenment, 2016, cotton webbing, timber cane, cotton and wool thread, Commissioned by Cairns Regional Gallery with the assistance of Friends of the Gallery, 2016 Grace Lillian Lee, Black: Infinity, 2016, cotton webbing, timber cane, cotton and wool thread, Commissioned by Cairns Regional Gallery with the assistance of Friends of the Gallery, 2016

ARTNOW 2019
13 Dec 2019 – 2 Feb 2020

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Grace Lillian Lee, Untitled 2019, cotton webbing, assorted beads, shells, plastic, glass, water based ink on cotton, Courtesy of the artist

ARTNOW FNQ 2017
1 Dec 2017 – 18 Feb 2018

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Grace Lillian Lee, A Weave Through Time, 2017, palm leaf, cotton yarn, plastic, cotton webbing, Donated through the Cairns Art Gallery Foundation, 2018

Collection Works

Grace Lillian Lee, A Weave Through Time, 2017, mixed media, Purchased by Cairns Art Gallery, 2018

Grace Lillian Lee, White: Enlightenment, 2016, cotton webbing, timber cane, cotton and wool thread, Commissioned by Cairns Regional Gallery with the assistance of Friends of the Gallery, 2016

Grace Lillian Lee, Black: Infinity, 2016, cotton webbing, goose feathers, beads, timber cane, cotton and wool thread, Commissioned by Cairns Regional Gallery with the assistance of Friends of the Gallery, 2016

Grace Lillian Lee, Red: Acceptance, 2016, cotton webbing, timber cane, cotton and wool thread, Commissioned by Cairns Regional Gallery with the assistance of Friends of the Gallery, 2016

Exhibition Catalogues

RITUAL: the past in the present

Exhibition catalogue