I am the Hermit, You Are the Cave / You Are the Wind, I am the Song

ADAM LEE
I am the Hermit, You Are the Cave / You Are the Wind, I am the Song
22 November – 20 December 2025

STATION | SYDNEY

STATION is delighted to present I am the Hermit, You Are the Cave / You Are the Wind, I am the Song, Adam Lee’s ninth solo exhibition with the gallery. This body of work forms the first chapter of a larger ongoing project, Deaf Man’s Villa, a title borrowed from the house in which Francisco Goya spent some his final years, creating his now-infamous Black Paintings.

Contemplative and expansive, this series extends the central concerns of Lee’s practice: memory, imagination, transcendence, and the quiet spaces between them. I am the Hermit, You Are the Cave / You Are the Wind, I am the Song unfolds as a meditation on solitude, spirituality, and the layered nature of human experience.

The exhibition’s origins can be traced to a suite of exploratory drawings produced in early 2025. Often made on semi-transparent papers, these works capture fleeting impressions and fragmentary moments, like frottages that trace partial details from the vast visual archive Lee has gathered over many years. This process of collecting, layering, and re-imagining forms the foundation for the paintings that follow, where atmospheric worlds emerge through the merging of allegory and abstraction.

Lee's practice draws upon a wide range of sources, including historical and family photographs, spiritual narratives, natural history, literature, and art-historical influences. These references intertwine with Lee’s own experiences, his travels, his encounters with museums and sacred places, his time spent in nature, and his reflections on the everyday. Among these inspirations, a particular text served as the catalyst for one of the exhibition’s key works: Paul Harding’s novel, Tinkers. A vivid passage from the book lingered in the artist’s mind for months and ultimately inspired the painting Leviathan.

The result is a body of work that feels intimate and mythic, deeply personal yet intertwined with shared cultural memory. Lee’s practice speaks to a contemporary moment marked by a renewed interest in storytelling, connection to place, and a yearning for deeper understanding of our shared humanity.

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Installation Views

Artworks

Adam Lee
Leviathan 2025
oil and synthetic polymer on canvas
195.0 × 270.0 cm

Adam Lee
You Are the Wind, I am the Song 2025
watercolour and ink on paper
214.0 × 135.5 cm

Adam Lee
Passage 2025
watercolour and ink on paper
201.5 × 135.0 cm

Adam Lee
Returning Song 2025
oil and synthetic polymer on canvas
195.0 × 144.5 cm

Adam Lee
Tear O Tare O Tear 2025
oil and synthetic polymer on canvas
175.0 × 240.0

Adam Lee
Oligarch 2025
watercolour and ink on paper
48.0 × 38.5 cm

Adam Lee
Abbas Anchorite 2025
watercolour and ink on paper
48.0 × 38.5 cm

Adam Lee
Limen 2025
watercolour and ink on paper
163.0 × 112.5 cm

Adam Lee
Ossuary 2025
watercolour and ink on paper
163.0 × 112.5 cm

Adam Lee
I am the Hermit, You are the Cave 2025
oil and synthetic polymer on canvas
172.5 × 119.5 cm

Adam Lee
Returning Song (Honeyeater) 2025
oil and synthetic polymer on canvas
61.0 × 46.0 cm

Adam Lee
Two Trees, A Door 2025
watercolour and ink on paper
163.0 × 112.5 cm

Adam Lee
Tear 2025
watercolour and ink on paper
48.0 × 38.5 cm

Exhibition Text

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