Clee Claire Lee was born in Sheffield in 1966. She studied Art Psychotherapy at the University of Sheffield and followed a career in clinical psychology in women’s health. She later went on to study Art and Design at Chesterfield College, and in 2016 she graduated with distinction from Nottingham Trent University’s Masters Fine Art course.
Her work explores states of ‘betweenness’ through ethereal sculpture and immersive wire installations. She collaborates with dance artists, and with the artists collective Material Voice, who work with cultural institutions to increase the visibility of women sculptors. She is a member of the Royal Society of Sculptors.
Ideas of voice and voicelessness run through much of Clee Claire Lee’s work. Her sculptures focus on the edge of materiality, through the creation of ethereal sculpture, immersive and site-sensitive installation, dance and collaborative working. Transience and transition are common themes in her work, as she attempts to capture the periphery of experience. Her main medium is steel wire, and she welds or weaves this intuitively and organically into large amorphous forms. Her body is important in the work’s creation, intimately connecting with it through meticulous manipulation.
Liminal themes are sometimes complemented with non-material elements such as light and shadow, or sound and movement, which can bring the work alive. She prefers to work site-specifically, collaborating with sensory cues as well as with artists of different disciplines, to stretch the dimensions of her sculpture. Her most recent projects have sought to convey the more sinister invisible forces that influence our feelings and behaviour.