Artist Feature: Sadie Lee
The world of queers, tomboys, and crossdressers.
The extraordinary portraiture painted by Sadie Lee gives me access to a lifestyle I relate to, yet my curiosity still blooms. I become a voyeur of sorts. Sitting in my study, falling in and out of love with each person she depicts. I look into their lives, filling in gaps of their personal history, given the opportunity to stare into the world of queers, tomboys, and crossdressers. Thoughts of my own gender and sexuality struggles are evoked. I think of how I once wanted to kiss a bearded girl so hard that I had to walk away because it would confuse my relationship, or further more, confuse me. I ponder the times I wear a strap-on and it feels so right, but then so do fishnets, eyeliner, and my bustier. I wonder how I will age into these curiosities with my self.
Gender identification and sexuality, although they often play together, they don’t always hold hands. Lee touches on both, together and separate, alongside aging. “My work often cocks an eye at the representation of gender and considers whether masculinity and femininity are constructed identities created and reinforced through the use of makeup, costume, and body language. In my paintings of Warhol Superstar and infamous transvestite Holly Woodlawn, the ambiguity of the sitters’ biological sex (or ‘real’ gender) allows the viewer to join in the guessing game, deciding and re-evaluating what constitutes male and femaleness.”
Lee’s models are from all walks of life; spanning ethnicities, genders, body sizes, sexualities, and ages. She explains they are “frequently united by a sense of vulnerability combined with an overtly strong sexual awareness.” Although often highly exposed in their challenging stereotypes and expected or unexpected gender roles, her subjects have one thing in common, they remain in control. One of the many reasons why her work is so inspiring, offering a sense of confidence to let our true colors shine.
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Sadie Lee (1967) makes realistic paintings of real people. Recurring themes in her work deal with gender, sexuality, the representation of women and aging. She grew up in Yorkshire, England, her family moving to Surrey when she was fourteen. She was a Fine Art student at Epsom School of Art in 1986 and later studied mural painting and marbling at the Hackney Institute. She began receiving recognition in 1992 with her painting “Erect.” She has held several group and solo exhibitions internationally. She lives and works in London.