Patrick Parrish Gallery is proud to present ”Catch and Release”, Liam Lee’s debut solo exhibition inspired by the ephemera of creation and the perplexing poetry of what lies beneath the ocean’s surface.

Known for phantasmagorical furniture constructed from felted merino wool, Lee is an NYC-based artist and designer whose work takes surrealist shape through creative instinct, technical improvisation, and a deep sensitivity to the power of sense-memory. As a self-taught artist, Lee’s practice employs labor-intensive craft techniques in often unexpected ways that push the material and formal boundaries of his work. Speaking with his own formal vocabulary, Lee’s pieces are drenched in color and play with texture, materiality, and scale in order to provoke viewers to reconsider how we relate to the objects within our homes.

“The title of the show speaks both to the aquatic source of inspiration for this body of work, as well as to the process of creating the work itself, which involves at times casting a net and pulling up a form or an idea and then releasing it back into the world. It also nods to the figure of Proteus, who constantly changes shape, but when caught, holds his true form and provides the answer to his captor’s question. I suppose it’s also a way of not holding onto the things you create—a way of catching the thing in your hand for a brief time as it takes shape and then letting it go,” says Lee.

Lee’s inaugural showcase welcomes new materials and methods into his aesthetic repertoire, continuing his signature felt furniture and tapestries while introducing glazed ceramics, works on paper, and crocheted wire light sculptures: fluid forms swim across mohair and merino wool, ceramic coral clings to a mirror’s edge, and freshwater pearls adorn the copper wire skin of what might be a lamprey in another life.

An opening reception will be held on Thursday, June 22nd and the exhibition will be on view through Friday, August 4th. We hope to see you there!