Bing Lee
Excerpts from Pictodiary
Excerpts From Pictodiary is a series of 36 glass panels, each etched with an icon from Bing Lee’s extensive collection of pictograms that he began creating in 1983. The elements of his work come from a variety of sources, including his childhood interest in cartoons and characters from American comic strips and magazines, various items he equates with American culture such as cars, bombs and Mickey Mouse and his Chinese heritage. The work was designed to take advantage of the changes in both natural and artificial light throughout the day. In the work, Lee leaves room for observers to use their own imagination and add their own interpretations.
“I can’t imagine one single image can please the whole world,” Lee said. “Sometimes I draw a symbol so abstract, the next day I become the audience and say, ‘Wow, what is that?’”
Experts from Pictodiary is part of the art from the Burke Collection donated to the Midwest Express Center in 1998.
About Bing Lee
Bing Lee was born in China but grew up in Hong Kong and spent his high school years studying mathematics. During that time, he participated in an experimental arts program at Hong Kong University and became more interested in art and less interested in mathematics. Lee eventually moved to New York in 1979.
Pictodiary is a published compendium of Lee’s imagery. It contains thousands of abstract and representational symbols. Each figure is drawn within a square of the grid format of Chinese rice paper used to practice calligraphy. The images come to Lee in the form of memories and dreams forged by his conscious and subconscious converging and processing of information, thoughts and feelings. Lee records these images nightly, adding to the ever-growing series of intuitively generated pictography for future publication.
Lee’s works have been exhibited in art festivals, galleries and museums internationally. He is a founding member of Tomato Grey, Godzilla-Asian American Arts Network, Epoxy Art Group in New York and Visual Art Society in Hong Kong. Lee is a recipient of several awards, including the Fulbright Foundation Fellowship 2003, New York State Council on the Arts 1994, New York Foundation for the Arts, Gregory Millard fellowship 1993, National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship 1991, Hong Kong Independent Film Festival Best Experimental film 1979 and Ford Foundation 1978.
Lee established the Bing Lee Studio in 1990 and has been commissioned to design and install site-specific public art projects, including the Canal Street Subway Station in New York City, Kowloon Tong Station in Hong Kong, Townsend Harris High School, Public School 88 and Public School 242 public schools in New York.
Lee graduated with a BFA from Columbus College of Art and Design in 1979. After receiving his BFA, he continued his graduate studies at Syracuse University on scholarship and a full teaching assistantship.
Excerpts from Pictodiary is part of the art from the Burke Collection donated to the Midwest Express Center in 1998.
