Faculty Corner

UNCG Faculty Teaches in China

Billy Lee, Professor of Art and Sculpture at UNCG, had the opportunity to spend more than two months in China in the summer of 2011 to teach the first postgraduate master class on abstract sculpture. Lee was the lead international professor and was invited to teach the course by China’s National Sculpture Magazine and the China Sculpture Professional Committee, who sponsored this program. Lee says that he believes this course to be “the first of its kind.”

Students had to be selected for the course and were hand-picked by the committee from all over China. Most of the students were faculty members from art academies and universities around the country. “All the students were post graduates who are already teaching at art academies and universities,” says Lee. “Four had Ph.D.’s and one was an assistant dean.”

Billy Lee (front center) with students holding their certificates of completion

Sculpture by Billy Lee, “Kiss,” located in Goodwood Sculpture Park, UK

While in Beijing, Lee was also invited to participate in an international sculpture exhibition called “Blue Symphony.”  The exhibition took place in the coastal city of Nandaihe, which is the summer residence of the Chinese government. Lee has since written articles for publication in Sculpture magazine and has been invited to lecture at a number of academies.

Lee has been invited to China to exhibit and lecture for the past eleven years. In 2010, he was invited to participate in the International Beijing Art Biennale and to deliver a paper on technological influences on sculptural forms at a forum in Beijing. Due to his considerable and growing international reputation, Lee has consistently been invited to exhibit and place works in many different countries, including Japan, Italy, Hungary, Chile, and the UK.
Lee has also received numerous awards and honors worldwide.

Lee was born of Chinese and Dutch parentage in Uitenhage, South Africa. As a child, his parents immigrated to England, where he later received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with 1st class honors from Birmingham College of Art and Design and his Master of Fine Arts at the Royal College of Art (RCA) in London. Upon graduation from the RCA, Lee received the prestigious Kennedy Scholar award to attend the Centre for Advanced Visual Studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he was later named a Fellow. He remains the only artist ever to receive the award of Kennedy Scholar. To learn more about Billy Lee’s works, visit http://www.billyleesculptor.com

Pages from China’s Sulpture magazine documenting Billy Lee’s visit