As a keen observer of the visual world and social dynamics, Lee’s artistic research uses the methods of painting, sculpture and writing to look at the emotional and physical experiences of our social and built environments. Through color, composition, and the specificity of materials, she uses painting as a method of symbolic and diagrammatic thought to study how knowledge is formed through images and their materials. She is interested in how this formal and conceptual thinking can scale through exhibition or installation to incorporate context and architecture in the system of the image.

Born in Oakland CA, Frances Lee studied at Oberlin College (BA 2013) and the University of Chicago (MFA 2018). Her work has been exhibited at the Hyde Park Art Center (Chicago, IL), Logan Center Exhibitions (Chicago, IL), EXPO CHICAGO, and most recently at the Visual Arts Gallery at the University of Illinois Springfield where she presented a solo exhibition in 2023.  She has participated in several residencies, programs and fellowships including the Center Program at HPAC, ACRE, and the Vermont Studio Center. Lee currently teaches painting at Northwestern University where she is a Lecturer.