As a child Serena Lee was determined never to be an artist; her grandparents had their hearts set on optometry for her.  Meditating such traditional Chinese pragmatism with the dominant Euro-Canadian culture is something she has learned to relish.

Currently enjoying her second year as an interdisciplinary Fine Arts major at the Ontario College of Art & Design, she revisit the question of cultural identity in her work using media as diverse as oil painting, photography, printmaking, and video installation.  Our hybrid identity needs to be represented and given a strong voice.  As an artist and a proud Chinese Canadian, she considers it her privilege and duty to participate in this vibrant movement.

"Someone to Watch Over Me is a 32” x 40” oil painting that amalgamates the European tradition of figurative painting with a Chinese visual lexicon of symbols and style.  I have always regarded the kitschy calendar and kitschy money envelope graphics with delight and fascination.

Someone to Watch Over Me depicts an empowered woman compromising the European tradition of representing female nude as passive, however she is still subject to the gaze; presumably the Euro-North American gaze.   Addressing my position as a Chinese Canadian woman brings more complexity to the politics of female nudes because of the stereotypes of highly sexualized Asian women.  By incorporating a Chinese symbol vocabulary with the realistic, single-point perspective principles of European painting, this piece addresses the hybrid Chinese Canadian culture and the visual politics of the (specifically Asian) female nude"  Serena Lee