manimals

source: daniellee

Beginning from stark portraits photographed with a high resolution digital camera, Daniel Lee submits his pictorial subjects to the digital wringer, provoking their unsettling metamorphosis into animal-like forms. He appropriately entitled these series “Manimals”, “Judgement”, “108 Windows”, “Origin” and “Nightlife” initially shown at O.K. Harris Works of Art Gallery in New York since 1993, in addition, these works attracted the attention of publications like PBS Television, BBC News, New York Times, American Photo, Zoom, Wired, Art Life, Harper’s, Creative Technology magazines and gallery and museum exhibitions in France, Italy, England, Japan, Taiwan, Portugal, Canada, Germany, Austria and Australia.

Known as Lee Xiaojing in Chinese, born in Chunking, China (1945) and raised in Taiwan. He moved to United States after he received his BFA in painting from College of Chinese Culture. Then he got his MA degree majored in Photography and Film from Philadelphia College of Art and worked as an Art Director in New York until the late seventies, at which point he changed to photography as a career. Within one and a half decades, he went through different stages in fashion, people to still life collage. Since 1993, computer technology allowed him to combine his various drawing, photographic and fine art skills in one medium.

Daniel Lee’s work has been shown internationally in solo exhibitions at O.K. Harris Works of Art, New York (1993, 1994, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2005), the East Gallery, Taipei (2005), Nichido Contemporary Art, Tokyo (2004), CCB Center, Lisbon (1999), the Galerie du Chateau d’Eau, Toulouse (1995), the Fotofo Gallery, Bratislava (1995), both of his “108 Windows” and “Origin” in video installation have been shown in the 2003 Biennale of Venice, and to be chosen as the logo artist by Ars Electronica 2005, Linz, Austria.

Lee has lectured at the Fogg Art Museum of Harvard University (2005), Maryland Institute College of Art (1997), Ithaca College, New York (1998); the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York (1990); the Beijing Central Art Institute (1986) and the Art School of Shanghai University (1984).

His photographs are included in public and private collections such as the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York; the Shanghai Art Museum; the National Museum of Art, Taipei Fine Art Museum and Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan; the New Mexico Museum of Fine Arts; the Musee de la Mode de la Ville de Paris; Landes Museum in Linz, Austria; Busan Museum of Art, Korea; Merck & Co., Seattle; Wellcome Collection, London and Documanta, Kassel, Germany.
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source:daniellee

The ancient Chinese zodiac is comprised of a cycle of twelve animal signs associated with birth years. They are: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Cock, Dog and Boar. A person is believed to exhibit behavioral and personality traits, sometimes even physical characteristics, relative to the animal year during which he or she was born.

In the twelve portraits of the “Manimals” series, the artist Daniel Lee interprets the Chinese zodiac in contemporary terms through computer manipulation of photographic images. Each portrait represents the animal sign of that person. The “Manimals” series is composed of twelve 24″X30″ color photographs. The original images were photographed with Ektachrome in medium format camera, then converted digitally and rearranged on a Macintosh Quadra 950, using Adobe Photoshop software.

“Year of the Ox” was included in the exhibition “Photography and the Human Soul, 1850 – 2000” at Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2000 and “Future Face” at the Science Museum in London, 2005. The series of “Manimals” was featured in “Animal Instincts”, 2004 at Montalvo Arts Center, Saratoga, CA, “Facing Difference” at Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan 2005 and “In Vivo In Virto, Ergostasio Center, Athens, Greece, 2006.
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source: rayartcenterorg

华裔美籍艺术家李小镜（Daniel Lee）便是其中的一位。他于1993年开始利用电脑的合成变形技术，创作出一个“人兽”（Manimals）系列作品，这个标题本身也是一个合成词，他利用中国文化里的十二生肖来将某个生肖年份的人脸与该生肖的动物脸合成一体，产生介乎于人兽形象之间的肖像。后来，他又通过类似的手法创作出拟人化的动物形象，如“夜生活”和“成果”等系列作品。
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source: criativuwordpress

Os personagens de Avatar poderão ter sido inspiradas nas personagens de Daniel Lee, um artista Chinês criado na Tailândia e neste momento a residir em nova- york.No seu site podemos ter acesso a várias das suas séries artísticas baseadas na simbiose entre animal e humano.

Criada nos anos 90, o trabalho que mais salta a vista é a série fotográfica Manimals, uma simbiose entre a figura humana e animais dos 12 signos do Zodíaco chinês, o Rato, Boi, Tigre, Coelho, Dragão, Cobra, Cavalo, Carneiro, Macaco, Galo, Cão e o Porco.

Para criar estas imagens, Daniel teve de investir na altura em material informático, para usar software de retoque de imagem, como também em vários livros sobre animais, para servir como base e aprender a identificar as pequenas diferenças entre a anatomia da cara humana e animal, Daniel diz por exemplo que a face humana é mais plana em comparação a cara pontiaguda animal, e que s animais tem os olhos mais separados, e testa e mandíbulas mais estreitas.

No filme de Avatar os Na´vi eram personagens azuis, com morfologia meio humana meio animal, se verificarmos nas obras de Daniel Lee desde os anos 90, verificamos que este só pode ter sido o influenciador destas criaturas imaginarias no filme de James Cameron.

As criaturas de Daniel Lee encontram-se em colecções publicas e privadas como o museu de arte de Brooklyn, em New York, no Museu de Arte de Shanghai, em Paris e Londres de entre outros.