bio

biography

My name is Lee Wagstaff I was born in 1969 in Essex.

I am an English artist based in Berlin, working across drawing, installation, and image-based practices. My work investigates how perception becomes unstable when images resist immediate recognition, and how sustained looking alters the relationship between attention, form, and meaning. Using geometric abstraction, repetition, and latent figuration, I construct visual situations in which images hover at the threshold of legibility, appearing and dissolving as the viewer’s attention shifts over time.

I studied at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and the Royal College of Art in London, and at Kyoto City University of Arts in Japan. My work has been exhibited internationally in gallery, museum, and performance contexts. In 2007 I co-founded the artist-led project space RISE berlin, where I worked as director and curator until 2013. My practice has often engaged the body as both subject and material, from large-format self-portraiture to print-based works, including Shroud, a self-portrait screen print made using my own blood, later included in Impressions of the Century – 100 Years of the Fine Art Print at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Across these projects, my interest has remained consistent: to test how images/patterns organise attention, and how meaning emerges through duration rather than instant recognition.

“The emergence of Lee’s image on the Shroud elevates him to the status of a surrogate divine seemingly without the intervention of God. It comes off as both disquietingly heroic and at the same time spiritually arrogant”

David Bowie

statement

I’m interested in how systems shape the conditions of seeing. Rather than illustrating theories of perception, my work builds situations that organise attention and delay resolution, so that seeing becomes something you have to stay with. The thinking happens through the experience itself.

c.v.

Education

Postgraduate Research Royal College of Art (2014-2015)
Australian Stunt Academy (2001)
MA Royal College of Art, London, England (1998-2000)
Kyoto City University of Art, Kyoto, Japan (1999)
BA (Hons) Central St.Martins College of Art and Design (1992)

Solo Exhibition

On and On – Finale Ligure, Italy (Oct 2024)
Against Nature – Berlin, Germany (May 2020)
Pangolin – Berlin, Germany (March 2020)
Information Overlord – Jealous, London UK (Oct 2019)
Apophenia – Berlin Germany (April 2019)
A Sows Ear Never Intended for Purse-hood – Berlin Germany (Mar 2019)
Operation Dog – Berlin Germany (Nov 2018)
Sharp Attack Gentle Decay – Berlin Germany (July 2018)
Humble Like an Earthworm – Berlin Germany (March 2018)
A World Without God – Berlin Germany (Nov 2017)
I Remember Sea + Sky – Berlin. Germany (June 2016)
Turn the Heater On – Berlin. Germany (Nov 2014)
Bodyscanner – Berlin, Germany (May 2013)
Baptism – The Others – Turin, Italy (November 2011)
I am the Weapon – Rise Berlin, Berlin, Germany (June 2011)
Apostles – Rise Berlin – Berlin, Germany (April 2009)
Baptism – Rise Berlin – Berlin, Germany (November 2007)
Apostles – Space 44 – London, England (April 2005)
Baptism – ACAD – Calgary, Canada (November 2004)
Baptism – The Proposition – New York, USA (September 2002)
Baptism – Javogue and Ingalls Fine Art – Miami, Florida, USA (February 2002)
Baptism – Belgrave Square – London, England (January 2002)
Baptism – Gallery Edward Mitterrand – Geneva, Switzerland (September 2001)
Baptism – Gallery Valerie Cueto – Paris, France (May 2001)
Baptism – Gallery Engelhorn – Vienna, Austria (March 2001)
Baptism – Gallery Seine 51 – Paris, France (March 2001)

Group Exhibitions

Folia – Abdülmecid Efendi Mansion, Istanbul (Sept 2025)
HI-FRUCTOSE Line Addicts-Thinkspace Projects, LA USA (Oct 2024)
Summer Exhibition – The Royal Academy of Arts, London (June 2023)
Summer Exhibition – The Royal Academy of Arts, London (June 2023)
10th Annual Supersonic Invitational Harman Projects LA USA AUG 2022
Summer Exhibition – The Royal Academy of Arts, London (June 2023)
@Background Bob and his amazing friends – Firstsite, Colchester (April 2023)
Illusions, Galerie SLP – Berlin (Dec 2022)
10th Annual Supersonic Invitational, Harman Projects – New York, USA (Aug 2022)
Summertime Rolls – Tacheles, Berlin (July 2021)
Summer Exhibition – The Royal Academy of Arts, London (June 2020)
Ornament als Versprechen – Ludwig Forum Aachen (Sept 2018)
Instinct # 6 – Village Berlin (Sept 2018)
Jealous Needs You – Jealous Gallery London (July 2018)
Summer Exhibition – The Royal Academy of Arts, London (June 2018)
Summer Exhibition – The Royal Academy of Arts, London (June 2017)
Bowie Collector – Sothebys, London (November 2016)
Derwent Art Prize” 2nd Prize Winner, London (September 2016)
Summer Exhibition – The Royal Academy of Arts, London (June 2016)
The body and the human form – Victoria & Albert Museum (March 2016)
Herencia del Arte – San Jose, Costa Rica (April 2014)
In the Flesh – Tonbridge (January 2014)
Derwent Art Prize – London (September 2013)
Tape Modern No.25 – Tape, Berlin (January 2012)
The Face of Jesus in My Soup – RISE berlin, Berlin (December 2011)
Happiness Machines – RISE berlin, Berlin (March 2010)
Summer Exhibition – The Royal Academy of Arts, London (June 2010)
Lingering Whispers – The Crypt, St.Pancras, London (May 2010)
Celestial Contrakt – Schwartz Gallery, London (November 2009)
Summer Exhibition – The Royal Academy of Arts, London (June 2009)
Poetic Madness and the Romantic Imagination – RISE Berlin, Berlin (December 2008)
Leben Lieben – RISE Berlin, Berlin (September 2007)
Board of Tattoos – London (October 2006)
Everyday Shockers – Escape, London (September 2004)
Summer Exhibition – The Royal Academy of Arts, London (June 2003)
Naked Before God – Museum of New Art, Parnu, Estonia (June 2003)
Express – A Journey Through the RCA Print Archive – Study Gallery Poole, England (March 2003)
The Fourth Sex-Adolescent Extremes – Stazione Leoplado, Florence, Italy (January 2003)
Sacred Century – Victoria & Albert Museum, London, England (February 2002)
Impressions of the 20th Century – Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England (September 2001)
Ornament Und Abstraction – Fondation Beyeler, Basel Switzerland (June 2001)
What’s Next From London – Orion Gallery, Ostend, Belgium (May 2001)
Typical Men – Touring Exhibition (2001) including; Museum of Modern Art Glasgow, Scotland, Djanogoly Gallery, Nottingham, England and First Sight at The Minories, Chelmsford, England
Life’s What You Make it” Design Museum, London (November 2000)
Circle – Henry Peacock Gallery, London (2000)
Ra to Hi – Kobe Art Village, Kobe, Japan (October 2000)
Swastika – Show Gallery, Kyoto, Japan (December 1999)

Awards, Fellowships and Residencies

Frans Masereel Print Centre – Research Residency (June 2013)
Royal College of Art Printmaking Research Fellow (2000-2001)
Waterstone – RCA Award (2000)
Kyoto City University of Art – Travel Award (1999)

Collections

Victoria & Albert Museum
David Bowie Collection
RCA print archive
Various private collections in Turkey, Japan, India, USA and throughout Europe

Commissions / Collaborations

‘Flesh and God’ A Dialogue Between Contemporary Artists and The Catholic Church of France (2003)
Karlheinz Weinberger- new publication (2003)
BowieArt Print Project (2001)
Mercedes Benz/Esquire C-Class Commission (2000)

Lecturing / Teaching

The Slade School of Fine Art
University of East London
Winchester School of Art
Royal Academy of Arts School
The Royal College of Art
Alberta College of Art & Design
Surrey Institute of Art & Design
The Minories Colchester
Kobe Art Village
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Bibliography

Screenprints: A History, Gill Saunders, V&A Museum. ISBN-10: 0500481016.

Le Christ au miroir de la photographie contemporaine, Nathalie Dietschy, Editions Alphil, 2016. ISBN: 978-2-88930-088-4

Skull Sourcebook, A. Nozedar, Race Point, 2015. ISBN: 978-1631061585.

Forever: The New Tattoo, R. Klanten, Gestalten, 2012. ISBN-10: 3899554426.

Lingering Whispers, Predrag Pajdic, The Pandorian, 2010. ISBN: 978-0-9553309-1-9.

100,000 Years of Beauty, Elizabeth Azouley, Gallimard, 2009. ISBN-10: 207012844X.

Prints Now: Direction and Definition, Gill Saunders & Rosie Miles, Victoria & Albert Museum, 2006. ISBN-13: 978-1851774807.

L’autoportrait au XXe siècle: Moi Je, par soi-même, Pascal Bonafoux, Diane de Selliers, 2004. ISBN: 2903656290.

Hidden Histories, Michael Petry, Art Media, 2004. ISBN: 190288910X.

A Guide to Ecstacity, Nigel Coates, Princeton Architectural Press, 2003. ISBN-10: 1568984243.

L’Église et l’art d’avant-garde: De la provocation au dialogue, Monsignor Albert Rouet & Gilbert Brownstone, 2003. ISBN: 22261135529.

ARS Erotica (reprint), Edward Lucie-Smith, 2003. ISBN: 084720602.

The Fourth Sex: Adolescent Extremes, edited by Francesco Bonami & Raf Simons, 2003. ISBN: 8881584042.

Tomorrow, Edward Lucie-Smith, 2002. ISBN: 0847820602.

Ornament and Abstraction: The Dialogue Between Non-Western, Modern & Contemporary Art, edited by Marcus Brüderlin, 2001. ISBN: 0300092261.

Impressions of the 20th Century: Fine Art Prints from the Victoria & Albert Museum Collection, edited by Margaret Timmers, 2001. ISBN: 1851773398.

Typical Men: The Male Body in Photographs by Men, Michael Watson, 2001.

Ambit 162, edited by Martin Bax & Eduardo Paolozzi, 2000. ISSN: 0002-6772.