James Oscar Lee (b. 1988) is a Detroit-based painter and leather goods designer. His colorful abstract style on large-scale paintings layers figurative gestures and disrupted landscapes that tell multiple stories upon closer inspection. Each stroke of a brush or drag of a palette knife is meticulously but emotionally placed, like that of a note by a composer. Deeply inspired by music, the avant-garde sounds of both local and well-known musicians in part guide his every action as he paints. In his latest collection of paintings exhibited in Margins of Error, Lee breaks ties in the relations between application techniques and the meaningful connections that the work represents. The familiar therefore becomes irrelevant. “A series of disconnections and what could be perceived as an error rather are calculated placements, but allow for the audience to make their own assumptions. The errors that one does find are those reflective of the reality outside of the work, for this is where acknowledgment of the imperfection lies.” Since his residency at Red Bull House of Arts, 2013, Lee has exhibited throughout Detroit, in Miami, Toronto, and Bulgaria. His work is included in permanent private and public collections nationwide. Image credits, @samanthalist