With found household objects and scrap metal from his immediate neighborhood, Thomas Grafton Lee creates installations and sculpture that are replete with social, political, and emotional content, while simultaneously providing a post-modern discourse on the fundamental issues of sculpture. Lee, a 2006 BA graduate of Cleveland State University, is currently living in Baltimore, Maryland, with a studio in a former textile factory. In his recent work, he strives to express the idea of the impossibility of social and community balance in this torn neighborhood.

In Suspended Dreams (2006), a battered double bed floats askew between ceiling and floor on strands of sewing thread, so seemingly precariously held that it bobs in the slightest air current. The installation speaks directly to the loss of opportunities and the impossible achievement of personal dreams while, at the same time, it calls into question such sculptural concerns as materiality, weightiness, substance, and beauty of form and surface. If I Could, I Would, I'll Try (2006), an enormous, jumbled stack of discarded chairs, improbably balanced on a single chair, makes a similar commentary. The artist Lee says, "Growing something improbable out of the refuse in the streets, I created If I Could, I Would, I'll Try in the spirit of overcoming abandonment." Suspended Play (2007), with children's green Army men entangled in a mesh of threads across a doorway, speaks to current political issues.

A second body of work, assemblages made of steel, twine, bark, and silk, more indirectly addresses issues of disparity and connection while exploring the formal contrast between geometrically shaped steel and home made cordage.

Brief Bio
Thomas Grafton Lee (b. 1982) studied architecture at Roger Williams University, Bristol, RI (2000), and theater design at Towson State University, Towson, MD (2001-2003); worked in construction and props and as part of the stage crew for the Olney Theatre Centre for the Arts, Olney, MD (2001), and the Ashlawn Opera Festival, Charlottesville, VA (2002); and traveled in Europe (2003), before arriving in Cleveland by happenstance. He graduated from Cleveland State University (BA, 2006) and is completing his studies for a Post-baccalaureate Certificate from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD (2007). This fall 2007 he will begin his MFA work at Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI.

Lee has recently exhibited his work in Baltimore, MD, at the Sub-Station Gallery (2006), Maryland Art Place (2007), and Fox Gallery (2007).

For more information call 216.229.6527 or go to info@sculpturecenter.org.