Visual Arts Open Talk: Sean Lee
Photo by Michelle Peek Photography and courtesy of Bodies in Translation: Activist Art, Technology & Access to Life, Re•Vision: The Centre for Art & Social Justice at the University of Guelph.
The Visual Arts Open Lecture Series presents talks by leading Canadian and international artists, curators, and academics.
Join Sean Lee, faculty for the Banff Artist in Residence Spring 2023 program. Lee is an artist and curator and is currently the Director of Programming at Tangled Art + Disability. In addition to his role at Tangled, Lee is an independent lecturer, speaker, and writer adding his insights and perspectives to conversations surrounding Disability Arts across Canada, the United States and internationally.
Accessible Curatorial Practices and Disability Arts
Lee will give his insights into the boundary breaking aspects of accessible curatorial practices, pushing beyond compliance-based understandings of access towards liberatory approaches. Exploring the notion of disability arts as the ‘last avant-garde’ movement, as coined by Turner Prize-nominated artist Yinka Shonibare, Lee advocates for a pivotal shift in our understanding of the relationship between art and disability.
Sean Lee Biography
Sean Lee is an artist and curator exploring the assertion of disability art as the last avant-garde. His methodology explores crip curatorial practices as a means to resist traditional aesthetic idealities. Orienting towards a “crip horizon”, Sean’s practice explores the transformative possibilities of accessibility as an embodied politic and disability community building as a way to desire the ways disability can disrupt.
Sean holds a B.A. in Arts Management and Studio from the University of Toronto, Scarborough and is currently the Director of Programming at Tangled Art + Disability. Previous to this role, he was Tangled’s inaugural Curator in Residence (2016). Sean has been integral to countless exhibitions and public engagements throughout his tenure at Tangled Art + Disability.
In addition to his role at Tangled, Sean is an independent lecturer, speaker, and writer adding his insights and perspectives to conversations surrounding Disability Arts across Canada, the United States and internationally. He has taught “Accessibility in Curating: A Framework” at NODE Curatorial Studies Online and the Hidden Project with Goethe-Institut Shanghai. Sean currently sits on the board of Toronto Arts Council and CARFAC Ontario, and is a member of the Ontario Art Council’s Deaf and Disability Advisory Group and Chair of the Toronto Art Council’s Visual Arts / Media Arts Committee.
