Next Big Thing: Jennifer J. Lee
The artist produces small-scale close-up paintings that depict everyday subjects such as cacti, tennis balls, or pizza
Working in startling photorealism, Jennifer J. Lee produces small-scale, close-up paintings, which depict everyday subjects such as cacti, tennis balls, or pizza. These evocative works—each taking a month and rendered on jute—often look pixelated, with the natural fiber providing a surprising, heightened contrast to their digital provenance. “I like to take things very slowly,” Lee says of her meditative approach, referencing Andy Warhol’s single-subject films like Empire, slow-motion stationary footage of the Empire State Building, as formative artistic influences. “I like to tease out an image. The jute helps because it’s a pebbly surface and slows down the mark making.”
Starting point: “I have this really long list of basic words, like jeans, that are generated through online shopping or memories,” says the Brooklyn artist. “I then take that subject, look it up on the internet, and start to gather images.” It’s all in an effort to discover “what’s so visually interesting about it.”
Size matters: “I make highly detailed images, and it’s really hard to do that on a large scale,” says Lee. “I like the idea of being able to move across the room and go really close up to a painting.”
“Jennifer is a wonderful, serious artist whom I admire greatly. Her meticulous attention to detail to how we process the world through our mobile phone cameras manifests as small, surprising, and strong paintings, says” artist Julie Mehretu.
A version of this article first appeared in print in our 2025 Winter issue under the headline “Next Big Things.” Subscribe to the magazine.