DELANEY LEE

SILENT SPRING

Exhibition dates: Sep 6 - Oct 15, 2023

Opening: Wed, Sept 6th, 6-8pm

SITUATIONS

127 Henry Street, New York, NY 10002

“There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature-the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter.”

- Rachel Carson

SITUATIONS proudly presents Delaney Lee’s first solo exhibition in New York, titled Silent Spring. This title references the 1962 book by Rachel Carson of the same name, documenting the environmental harm caused by the indiscriminate use of pesticides. Lee’s newest body of work calls attention to the cyclical forces in nature, the impermanence of existence, and the interconnectedness of life and death within our environment. Her paintings make use of the repeated motif of a spiraling snake amid insects and wildflowers native to California. 

The intimate perspective of Delaney Lee’s canvases consider individual flowering plant species up close and at larger-than-life scale. Delicate yet perennial, the wildflowers depicted represent both the transience of existence and an enduring sense of renewal. Bursting forth in full bloom, Lee’s subjects radiate with life, detail, and vibrant color, attracting a variety of winged insects. A translucent, unfurling snake overlays each composition like an apparition or a cast shadow, its outline flatly defined, alternately revealing and concealing the landscape behind.  

The spiral is a potent and enduring symbol, appearing frequently throughout the natural world and art history, with earliest known depictions dating back to petroglyphs from the Neolithic period. Lee’s superimposed, winding snakes embody the cyclical patterns of time: day becoming night, the changing seasons, and the interconnectedness of life, death, and rebirth. The contrast of positive and negative space, delineated by a shift in color or texture with oil pastel echoes the tension between order and chaos, civilization and wilderness. Lee’s pictures speak to the invisible forces and sheer power of nature as evident in even the most tranquil scenes, while also imbuing a sense of caution and urgency to protect this precarious balance.

DELANEY LEE (b. 1992, Los Angeles, CA) lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Past solo exhibitions include i5 at UFO Gallery, Berkeley, CA; and Votive at Sunday, Los Angeles, CA. Her work has previously been included in group exhibitions held at O’Flaherty’s, New York, NY; Martha’s Contemporary, Austin, TX; Bass & Reiner, San Francisco, CA; and Good Mother Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; among others. She received her BFA in Painting from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2014.