Kacie Lees is a conceptual artist, author, and educator working amidst neon, thermochromatic wearables, and instructional videos to examine optical phenomenon and the affective powers of light. She presents a diverse roster of experimental neon bending classes at museums and cultural institutions across the states including: Color Affect and Thin Rothkos (2023); 2 Days in Space (2022); How to Bend Infinity (2022); Risograph in the Subliminal Colorspace (2022); Love, Lust, Neon (2016-); and Retrosculpting the Neon Artwork (2021).

Lees received an MFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York and a BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Illinois. Lees is the recipient of The Los Angeles Conservancy Preservation Award (2022), The Downtown Grand Rapids Initiative Activate Grant (2022), and an Inquiry Arts Grant for work with Michigan State University’s Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (2022)

Her work has been exhibited at The Museum of Glass, Tacoma, WA (2023); The Museum of Neon Art, Glendale, CA (2022, 2017); Fondazione Palmieri, Lecce, IT (2021); Studio Kura, Itoshima, JP (2020); Loveland Museum, Loveland, CO (2019); and printed in PLASMA 4: International Art and Science Magazine (2018); and Readers Digest (2015); and can be seen in the following collections: Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection & Archive, Chicago, IL; The Corning Museum of Glass Rakow Research Library, Corning, NY; AGALAB Artist Archive, Amsterdam, NL; and KALA Institute Artist Archive, Berkeley, CA. 

She maintains an active studio and teaching practice triangulated between Brooklyn, NY; Chicago, IL; and Los Angeles, CA.

“In a ground floor studio in the heart of the DTLA, I spent three months making work exploring the Los Angeles area, driving culture, and the birth of the Theater District.

The expansive studio space opened me up to making neon in large format and I started working by framing the windows in multicolor border tubes. These works shifted into 7-foot vertical shadow experiments I liked to call, THIN ROTHKOS (2022) which conflate my interstate collection of favorite colors with emotive color therapy research.  

Over 3 months I got to know Amir, his dad and all the guys over at Abitech -where I blew all of my stipend on glass and transformers- and with that glass, I made the classic rainbow jumble, LA FREEWAYS (2022) inspired by my time navigating the downtown network of major highways (now on view in the main gallery at The Museum of Neon Art in Glendale, CA); no less than 20x THIN ROTHKOS (2022) -a select few illuminated with black light glass-; and SLOPING RIALTO (2022) a work exploring what would happen if a neon sign dripped right off its marquee supports and commingled with us humans on the street level (now on view poolside on Sentral’s rooftop @ 755 S. Spring).

Day and night I bent glass in the studio, and on Mondays I’d load up the truck and take the 110, to the 5, to the Ventura Freeway and drive over to The Museum of Neon Art and process a week’s worth of work. For me, the She Bends residency was a non-stop, high-energy light factory. Totally honored to be selected.”

Jude Abu Zaineh is a Palestinian-Canadian interdisciplinary artist and cultural worker. Her practice relies on the use of art, food, and technology to investigate meanings of culture, displacement, diaspora, and belonging. She examines ideals of home and community while working to develop aesthetics rooted in her childhood and upbringing in the Middle East. 

Abu Zaineh is the recipient of the 2020 William and Meredith Saunderson Prizes for Emerging Artists, and was one of the first selected artists to participate in a collaborative residency with the Ontario Science Centre and MOCA Toronto (Canada). She has presented her work nationally and internationally including Cultivamos Cultura, São Luis, Portugal; Museu de Arte, Arquitetura e Tecnologia, Lisbon, Portugal; Centro de Cultura Digital, Mexico City, Mexico; SVA, NYC, USA; Forest City Gallery, London, Canada; Art Gallery of Windsor, Canada; with forthcoming exhibitions at Centre Culturel Canadien, Paris, France; and the Visual Arts Centre of Clarington, Canada

Abu Zaineh received an MFA from the University of Windsor (Canada) and is currently pursuing her PhD in Electronic Arts at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (NY, USA) as a SSHRC Doctoral Fellow. 

She maintains an active studio practice between upstate NY, USA and Windsor-Essex, Canada.

“Being the inaugural She Bends resident artist was a key milestone as it represented my “return to home” —to the first place that allowed me the freedom and opportunity to learn the magic of glass-bending and the science of neon under Meryl Pataky’s wing. I'm excited to help pave the way with She Bends residency for other underrepresented artists to gain meaningful time and space to contribute culturally significant works to the craft of neon. “

THE ARTWORK -

“The watermelon is an agricultural staple and beloved summer fruit in Palestine. It also serves as a longstanding symbol of Palestinian resistance and perseverance, especially after all displays of the Palestinian flag and its colours were banned by oppressive, colonial Israeli forces. The watermelon, mirroring the same colours as the Palestinian flag, became emblematic of national pride and freedom of expression.”