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Sammy Lee (b. Vancouver, Canada) is a London-based artist working across drawing, sculpture, moving image, and immersive media. Informed by her background in architecture, she approaches the future as a site of memory, weaving lived experience and ancestral lineage through affect, ritual, and embodied practice. Since 2022 she has co-created Mirror with Sarah Shin – a polymorphous world-building act that unfolds across performance, exhibition, texts, scores, ritual and play. Their forthcoming book and deck Mirror Tarot: A Machine for Constructing Stories, published by Spiral House/Silver Press, will launch in October 2026.

Her solo exhibitions and projects include Nocturn[06] Hidden Ocean, 17 Little Portland Street, London, UK (2026); Cornucopia, Stephanie Kim Gallery, New York, USA (2024); Mirror I: The Sea, with Sarah Shin, SWAY, Barry, UK (2022); Aviary,Tate St Ives Commission, UK (2021). Selected group exhibitions include: Ground Seoul, South Korea (2024); UNESCO Centre for Documentary Heritage, Cheongju, South Korea (2023); Jeju International Peace Centre, South Korea (2023); Madberry Farmhouse, Seoul, South Korea (2023); Science Gallery London, UK (2023); Myungwon Museum, Seoul, South Korea (2022); MUTEK Montreal, Canada (2021).

She is co-director of 5D, an artistic collective formed with Mark Lowe and Sarah Shin. They designed The Word For World, an exhibition presenting the maps of Ursula K Le Guin at the Architectural Association, which they are expanding into a new work for Busan Biennale 2026. She studied Sculpture at the Royal College of Art and holds an AA Diploma (ARB/RIBA Part I&II) from the Architectural Association in London. She co-founded and directed Universal Assembly Unit (2013-2020), staging immersive installations at institutions and festivals including the Barbican Centre, Southbank Centre, London Design Festival, Roundhouse, and Nuit Blanche Paris.

sammyleestudio@gmail.com

Image 1
Cosmic Egg (binding-unbinding), 2026. Nocturn[06] Hidden Ocean, curated by Bianca Chu. 17 Little Portland Street, London, UK.
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Cosmic Egg (binding-unbinding), 2026. Nocturn[06] Hidden Ocean, curated by Bianca Chu. 17 Little Portland Street, London, UK.
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Nocturn[06] Hidden Ocean, 2026. Curated by Bianca Chu. 17 Little Portland Street, London, UK.
Image 4
What will you leave behind? (Mouthless mouth), 2025. Pastel on paper (3 x 2.5m).
Image 5
The Great Accumulator (what sustains you?), 2025. Pastel on paper (2.5 x 2.2m).
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Birthing the world on the turtle's back (what's the rush?), 2025. Pastel on paper (2.5 x 1.5m).
Image 1
Cornucopia, 2024. Stephanie Kim Gallery, New York.
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Codex Cornucopia, 2023. Curated by Stephanie Seungmin Kim. UNESCO International Centre for Documentary Heritage (ICDH), Cheongju.
Image 9
Mirror I: The Sea, 2022. Game screenshot. Collaboration with Sarah Shin.
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Song, 2019. Exhibition at MUTEK, Société des Arts Technologiques, Montreal.
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Aviary, 2021. Commissioned by Tate St Ives, UK.
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Aviary, 2021. Commissioned by Tate St Ives, UK.
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Aviary: Seoul, 2022. Myungwon Museum, Seoul. Curated by Stephanie Seungmin Kim.
Image 21
Song, 2019. Video still.
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Ecophony Gaya, 2023. Jeju International Peace Centre. Organised by Jeju Museum of Art.
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Ecophony Gaya, 2023. Video still.
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Between the roots are the stars, 2023. Madberry Farmhouse, Seoul. Commissioned by Sleeper's Summit. (Photo: Kim Yun-tae)
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Between the roots are the stars, 2023. Madberry Farmhouse, Seoul. Commissioned by Sleeper's Summit. (Photo: Kim Yun-tae)
Image 17
Move Sound Image, Ground Seoul, 2024. Curated by Yun Cheagab.
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Codex Cornucopia, 2023. Curated by Stephanie Seungmin Kim. UNESCO International Centre for Documentary Heritage (ICDH), Cheongju.
Image 18
Cymatics studies, 2024. Speaker, water, 3d printed container, LED lights.
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Portrait by Kadi Jatta, 2026.