Short Bio
Sophia is a multimedia artist in SF. She loves nature, & spends hours hoarding waste to create beautiful layered calligraphic work. Her murals and installations can be found all over the Bay Area.
Biography
Sophia Lee is a Taiwanese-American multimedia artist. She creates paintings, drawings, murals and public installations, finding her voice in modernizing the tradition of calligraphy and a positive re-contextualization of urban waste.
Lee was born in Taiwan and immigrated to the United States when she was nine. After studying Fashion at FIDM in LA and Fine Arts at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, she moved to New York and worked in publishing. In 2001, Lee quit her life in the city to become semi-nomadic. She traveled and worked all over Europe and Asia, rediscovering Taiwan as an adult. She returned to painting and held her first solo exhibit post college titled l’Arabesque in 2007 in Taipei.
Lee has lived in Los Angeles, Taipei, Portland, Newport Beach, and New York participating in solo and group shows in Asia and America.
Since moving to San Francisco, Lee was a resident artist with ArtSpan's Journal Building Artist Residency Program and participated in SF Open Studios. She's shown in numerous group shows and solo exhibitions. In 2016, Lee painted her first public murals for Redwood City and has been active in creating more murals for other cities in the Bay Area. She has created two mini hearts for the San Francisco Hearts benefiting the SF General Hospital Mental Health program and has received grants for her various public art installations using recycled waste, from Alameda Rhythmix Culture Works, Palo Alto Artlift Microgrant, Let's Glow San Francisco, and most recently, West Hollywood Art on the Outside for her Geo-Tag Acorn Treasure Hunt.
Her largest body of commissioned art works can be found in the public spaces throughout Hilton Garden Inn in Temecula, CA.
Lee now works out of the Electric Snail Studio and is an active volunteer artist with Kids & Art foundation.
Resume / CV
Artist CV: Sophia Lee
Solee@barkingowls.com | www.sophialeeart.com | www.sophialeeart.com
Education
Art Center College of Design, Bachelor of Fine Arts, Pasadena, CA 1995
F.I.D.M, AA in Fashion Design, LA, CA, 1991
study of encaustics painting at PNCA, Portland, OR 2008
Solo/ Duo Exhibitions
Aug 2021: Organic Unease with Lexie Bouwsma at Sky Cafe, South San Francisco, CA
2020 solo exhibit Sheppard Mullin Law Firm, The Garden series
2019 Bebebar cafe, Seams of the Fog, feature artist
2016 Farley’s Coffee, duo artists exhibit
2016 Table Asia gallery, now Avenue 12 gallery, duo artists exhibit
2011 Peripheral, Pearl Framing & Art gallery, Portland, Oregon
2010 Featured Artist, SOPA gallery, South Pasadena, CA
2007 L’arabesque, SSSoY, Taipei, Taiwan
Group Exhibitions
2023
• Jen Tough Artist Collective at Jen Tough Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
• ArtExpo, NYC with Jen Tough Artist Collective
• Juried Benefit Auction, ArtSpan, SF, CA
• Sky, The Drawing Room Gallery, SF, CA
2022
• Red Dot, Miami in Dec’ 2022, represented by Jen Tough Artist Collective
• ArtExpo, Dallas in Sept’ 2022, represented by Jen Tough Artist Collective
• Women Rising, Inside/ Outside Project, Drawing Room Annex, SF, CA
• Nocturne. online exhibit of Artist Alliance on Artsy.net
• Land, The Drawing Room Gallery Annex, SF, CA
• Sea, The Drawing Room Gallery Annex, SF, CA
2021
• Spirit of the Season at The Walt Disney Museum, SF, CA
• Power As Art, Blind Insect Gallery, Portland, OR
• The Ties that Bind, Drawing Room Gallery, SF, CA
2020
• Stripes 2, Sliver, BG gallery, Santa Monica, CA
• Goodbye 2020! Blind Insect Gallery, Portland, OR
• Future Tense, temporary mural, Ashen Bloom, Drawing Room Annex, SF, CA
• Women Rising, Drawing Room Annex, SF, CA
• Annual members exhibit, Berkeley Arts center
• Centered on center, Huntington Beach art center, CA
2019
• The Long Goodbye (July) Spark Arts Gallery, SF, CA
• Beauty in the Periphery, Reclaimed Gallery, SF, CA
• Imagine, Hayes Valley ArtWorks, SF, CA
• East on West, Senator Scott Wiener office, State of CA Building, SF, CA
• White Cube, The Space Gallery, Alameda, CA
• Rhythmix Love Our Island Art Walk, Radical Beauty 7, window installation, Alameda, CA
• 12x12, Gallery@Workwell, Irvine, CA
• Golden Road x Heal The Bay Pop-Up, Venice, CA
2018
• Landscape: real or imagined, SITE: Brooklyn gallery, NY, NY
• Vibrant Vision, SF Women’s Art Gallery, SF, CA
• Hospitality House annual auction, Minnesota Project, SF, CA
• Where I stop Where You Begin, Journal Building Residency Program, artists group show at Avenue, SF, CA
• Earth Action Initiatives, UCBerkeley, CA
• Collectors Choice 2018, Studio Channel Islands, Camarillo, CA
• Message in a Bottle, Surfrider Foundation, Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco, CA
2017
• Art-in-Neighborhoods, the Marker hotel, Mosser hotel & Hotel Adagio, SF, CA
• Summer of Love 50th Anniversary Art Exhibit, Mosser hotel, SF, CA
• Message in a Bottle, Surfrider Foundation exhibit
• ArtSpan Open Studio juried group show, Hotel Triton, SF, CA
2016
• Road Trip, Gallery Underground, Arlington, VA
• Juried into the San Francisco Artist Guild, weekend exhibits in the park
• ArtSpan Residency Program group show, Hotel Triton, San Francisco, CA
2013
• Newport Beach Regional Art Exhibit, Newport Beach, CA
• Women in Art, Las Laguna Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA
2011
• 26th Annual Juried Mail-in Art Show, Margaret Harwell Museum, Poplar Bluff, MO
• 6x6x2011, Rochester Contemporary Art Center, Rochester, NY
2010
• South Pasadena Art Walk, SOPA Gallery, South Pasadena, CA
2009
• SOPA Gallery Artist Winter Show, South Pasadena, CA
• Artists Beat the Flood, live painting/ auction to benefit typhoon victims. LILI Cafe Gallery, Taipei Taiwan
2008
• Wild Wild East, Red Room, Taipei, Taiwan
• Winter Group Show, SOPA Gallery, South Pasadena, CA
Public work, murals & private collections/ commission
• 2023: Little Free Library, Dublin, CA (Can you help me find the key?)
• 2022: utility box mural, Dublin, CA (Flowers of the Summer Breeze)
• 2021: utility box mural in Dublin (Garden Kaleidoscope)
• 2021: Let’s Glow downtown SF, projection mapping of art onto high rise buildings
• 2021: Hilton Temecula project, prints for rooms and original paintings for hotel lobby and public spaces.
• 2021: Palo Alto Artlift Microgrant: Little Fish installation, July-Oct
• 2021 Butterfly Sanctuary in the Secret Garden, mural in Danville, CA
• 2020 Old Town Tustin, CA planter project.
• 2020 Heart on Hartz, painting on heart sculpture for Danville, CA
• 2020 Painted Adirondack chairs for city of Dublin
• 2020 STEM banner art on stair wall of the building at American Rivers College, CA
• 2019 Mural for the lobby of Century Building, SF, CA
• 2019 Window installation “Beauty in the Periphery”, Alameda art walk, CA
• 2019 Dog of Danville, painted sculpture dog, CA
• 2019 & 2020 Hearts in SF, mini heart sculpture, SF General Hospital Foundation, CA
• 2018 Utility box mural, @ corner of San Ramon Valley Blvd & Crow Canyon Road, San Ramon, CA
• 2017 Utility box mural, @ the corner of Veterans Blvd & Middlefield, Redwood City, CA
• 2015 private collection, San Francisco, CA
• 2014 mural in private home, Newport Coast, CA
• 2013 Royal Sonesta Hotel, Houston, Texas
• 2012 Soho Myriad, artist roster, Atlanta, GA
• 2008 commission for Alley Cat restaurant group, Taiwan
Residency/ grant/ competition
• 2023 Art On the Outside, West Hollywood, CA for Acorn Treasure Hunt project
• 2023 NCWCA mentorship program, shortlisted
• 2021 grant from Palo Alto Public Arts Program for Little Fish
• 2019 grant from Alameda Rhythmix Cultural Arts for Peripheral Beauty
• 2019 Bicycle rack sculpture design finalist for Santa Ana Veterans Village, CA
• Artspan Journal Building artist residency program (from 07.2016 until 12.2018)
• 2012 Raghurajpur International Art/ Craft Exchange, India
• 2011 Coloring Outside the Lines ( finalist), Art Scene Today, online
• 2011 Hundred Valley Exhibit (finalist), Roseburg, OR
Print/ web
2023 March Featured Artist (online interview), Artist Power Center, YBCA
2022 Contemporary Artist Magazine, 2 page spread (premier issue)
2020 Feature Artist for ArtSpan Open Studios catalog
2018 Diablo magazine.
2018 feature on SFMOMA Instagram Submissions Friday, story
2016, 2020 MFA Never, Root Division Gallery printed catalogue
2015 art on cover of book, Dancer, Picador USA press
2008 Alley Cat year book, featured artist, annual publication
Life Before 2001:
2001-2008: traveler, freelance graphic designer
- full time book cover designer and illustrator at St Martin’s Press, New York, NY
- costume designer, set dresser for various films in LA, CA
- children's wear designer, LA, CA
