Our Featured Artist of the Week – Dulcie Dee
November 5, 2009
Dulcie Dee at Monkdogz Gallery
Dulcie Dee, an American born Chinese artist, is also a native New Yorker who grew up on the Upper West Side. Her grandfather, Dee C. Chuan, was the founder of the China bank in Manila, Philippines. As a result of this familial tie, Dulcie was sent over by her father in the early 1970s to meet her Asian relatives. She spent much time during her growing years in the Philippines and received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University in Manila.
After college Dee became a freelance artist, working for the big ad agencies in NYC as a hands-on graphic designer for the better part of 15 years. She always painted and exhibited in shows along the way, the first in 1992, which was a one-woman show.
The Geisha Exposed
Her experiences in Manila were a real eye opener and initiated the start of her unique painterly style of Asian Art. She pored over the books in the local libraries and found loads of inspiration.
In the 1980s Dee started copying the Japanese shunga wood block print masters who had so fascinated her, such as Utamaro and Yoshitoshi. Mainly, she would copy Samurais and Geishas to paper. First she used color pencil, as well as pen and ink to simulate the wood block, but over the years she finessed the work to suit her distinct style. Interestingly enough, many of her Geisha paintings are self-portraits.
After four years in San Francisco, where she received her Masters, she came back to NY and started on a new Madame Butterfly series, a total of 12 pieces where she decidedly opened up the kimono and exposed the Geisha. Nicknamed the foreplay series, these works evoke a vibrancy based on color and semi-eroticism.
Soon after, in 2007, she participated in the Flashing Flesh group show at the Monkdogz gallery in Chelsea, marking the first time a Chelsea gallery exhibited her work.
Akiko
Mariko
Hard Times
“Peking Princess” came next. This large, oil on canvas is a self-portrait that depicts the Chinese girl painter caught amid the oncoming recession in NY. The blue/green hair symbolizes suffocation and struggle – life’s hardship where she is spinning her wheels and not really getting anywhere in terms of job prospects. The piece was shown earlier this year at the National Arts Gallery Roundtable, a show that included invited guest artists.
Peking Princess
Dee currently lives and works in her studio apartment in the Financial district. She constantly paints but is eager to find work, and at this point, a roommate to help share the costs of living in NYC. We are excited to have her as one of our featured artists and wish her much success.
To view the ArtistsinAuction website click here.
To view more of Dulcie Dee’s work, click here.
