About

Background

Donald Lee (b. 1965) was raised in Hong Kong and moved to Canada in the mid-1980s. He studied computer science and pursued a career in information technology before turning his focus to art. He is a self-taught artist.

Practice Overview

Across Donald Lee’s work is a recurring interest in how forms come into being, acquire presence, and become meaningful.

His practice moves between invention, perception, and observation. In Drawing Script, he invents abstract characters through the overlapping acts of drawing, writing, and painting, exploring how unfamiliar forms can gradually emerge from simple lines. In Portraiture, the addition of dots or eyes causes these abstract forms to shift perceptually toward faces and figures, revealing how little is required for recognition and identity to arise. In Cook Pine, his attention turns to a living form shaped through growth, deep time, place, and personal history.

Although these bodies of work begin from different places, they share an underlying curiosity about becoming: how a line becomes a form, how a form becomes a character, how an abstract character can become a face, and how living structures emerge and transform through time.

Rather than treating abstraction and representation as fixed opposites, Lee approaches them as moments within an ongoing process—watching for the point at which something begins to appear, becomes recognizable, and takes on a presence of its own.

Exhibitions

2019 — Toronto Outdoor Art Fair, Toronto

2023 — Toronto Outdoor Art Fair, Toronto

2024 — Abstract Characters, Robert Kananaj Gallery, online exhibition

2024 — SoSF — New Abstract Portraits, Robert Kananaj Gallery, Toronto

2024 — Toronto Outdoor Art Fair, Toronto

2024 — Winter Parade, group exhibition, Gagne Contemporary, Toronto

2025 — Toronto Outdoor Art Fair, Toronto

2025 — WINTER SALON in Black & White, group exhibition, Gagne Contemporary, Toronto

2026 — Intangible Experiences, Propeller Art Gallery, Toronto

2026 — Toronto Outdoor Art Fair, Toronto