Charles Lee, His first ride, from the series sweat + dirt, 2023
CHARLES LEE
sweat + dirt
November 7, 2023 — February 3, 2024
Opening Reception with the artist: Friday, November 10, 6-8PM
Location: SF Camerawork, 2 Marina Boulevard, Building A, San Francisco, CA, 94123
SF Camerawork is pleased to announce the presentation of Bay Area artist Charles Lee’s first solo exhibition, sweat + dirt, on view at our Fort Mason location from November 7, 2023, through February 3, 2024. A public opening reception will be held on Friday, November 10, from 6-8pm, with additional programs to be announced during the run of the exhibition, via our email list and at sfcamerawork.org.
sweat + dirt is a document and investigation of contemporary Black rodeo culture and cowfolk in the United States. The show consists of traditional black-and-white photographs, larger-than-life mural prints, and two photo-based installations, one of which further explores the forms and ideas presented in Lee’s installation Been Here at the City of Berkeley’s Cube Space earlier this year.
The works and images in sweat + dirt were made in Louisiana, California’s Southern and Central Valley, and the San Francisco Bay Area. Through Lee’s project, we are presented with contemporary evidence by which we can trace the multi-racial history and widespread geographic reach of country life, and the role of Black people in the development of U.S. western culture. Lee’s images of Black ranchers, trail riders, ropers, equestrians, and animal trainers, in moments of joy and hard at work, help disrupt both the image of the rugged, white male cowboy as an icon of westward expansion and manifest destiny, and today’s reductive stereotypes of white rurality and black urbanness. According to Lee, “All of this is with the intention to further the discussion about what it truly means to be ‘American.’ In effect, this work shows that we’ve been here…. We are American.”
Selected Works
Selected Installation Views
About the Artist
Charles Lee (b. 1983, Honolulu) is an interdisciplinary artist “committed to fostering a deeper understanding of what constitutes American iconography, and more importantly, the fallacy that often surrounds such cultural representations.” Using video, photography, sculpture and installation, Lee unearths and amplifies hushed and nuanced conversations around race and caste, and connects them to contemporary representation. His work aims to “empower the viewer with more accurate depictions of their past, providing a means of embracing the complexities of our shared history.” [CL]
Lee is a graduate of the California College of the Arts (MFA ‘23), where he received the 2022 Edwin Anthony & Adelaine Boudreaux Cadogan Scholarship and Contemporary Art Award, All College Honors, and the Graduate Merit Scholarship. He is also a recipient of the 2021 Pabst Open Door Grant and was a 2022 Recology Artist in Residence. sweat + dirt is Lee’s first professional solo exhibition.
Website: charleshlee.com
Follow Charles on Instagram: @ohhh_so_sirius
Press
Art is Awesome Podcast, CHARLES LEE, by Emily Wilson, January 30, 2024
British Journal of Photography, Charles Lee brings Black cowboys to SF Camerawork, by Ravi Ghosh, January 19, 2024
Sweat + Dirt was featured in Spatial Awareness, the print September issue of The British Journal of Photography, Fall 2023
KQED, SF Camerawork Show Honors the Relationship Between Black Cowboys and Their Horses, by Nia Coats, December 13, 2023
