Boyd Realty Group:
Ron Lee and Michael A. Pierce
It’s Sunday Again

August 23 - September 21, 2024
Extended through October 19, 2024

Artspace Satellite Exhibition at Boyd Realty Group
6784 Forest Hill Ave, Richmond, VA 23225

Hours:
10-6 Tuesday-Friday
11-4 on Saturday
By appointment on Sunday and Monday

Call: 804-562-1978 | Email: office@boydrealtygroup.com

Artists’ Statement:
Since meeting each other on the evening of February 24, 1974, at 307 South Laurel Street in Richmond, VA at friend Frederick Fulmer’s birthday party, Ron and Michael have been together as a couple for over 50 years. 

In 1987, Michael and Ron mounted a show called SUNDAY at 1708 Gallery, when it was still at 1708 East Main Street, in Richmond, VA. That show consisted of Michael’s drawings of rabbits, friends, and family surrounding Ron’s collaged fans hanging from the ceiling in a chapel like setting. 

Thirty-seven years later, they are mounting another exhibition together. They are not trying to recreate that 1708 show, but instead they want to recapture that feeling of the many Sundays they have had together making things. In 2023 they both had the good fortune to spend two months of Sundays together making work at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. Some of the work in this show comes from their time in Paris, but they have also chosen other work that complements that experience. 

Note: Ron and Michael are both included in a concurrent show honoring Cité artists at Artspace Gallery across the parking lot from Boyd Realty.

Biographies:

Ron Lee

Ron Lee was born on February 15, 1954, around 8:00 p.m. at Dr. Blayton’s Medical Center, the first born of six siblings for Alice Christine Holmes and Southey S. Lee, Jr. of Williamsburg Virginia. His parents met while working as a waiter and a bus girl at the Williamsburg Inn (the storied golfing resort in the center of Historic Williamsburg Foundations Colonial Williamsburg.) In the early 1960’s Ron’s childhood was spent in Toano, Virginia, a small post office town on the outskirts of Williamsburg. The neighborhood was rural and surrounded by forests and intersected by streams that feed the Chickahominy River. The family unit consisted of his paternal grandparents, mom, and dad, and ultimately six children in a four-room house without running water, and an out-door toilet. He attended high school from 1968-’72 - the Civil Rights turmoil, Summer of Soul, and Summer of Love years on black and white TV. In 1971 he embarked on international travel to Switzerland and after his1972 high school graduation, he left to attend college at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia.

He started making collage-based fans in the mid-seventies. He got the idea after seeing the Alvin Ailey Dance Company perform at the Mosque in Richmond. In time, collage and fan-making along with his fashion design, would become his standard art practices. His acrylic paintings with layers and patterns were made to be reproduced as printed fabric designs. The mixed media works on paper are meant to be expanded versions of the fans as evidence by collaging and crude stitching.

His fans are often displayed like mobiles to allow viewers to see both sides. However, they are fabricated with reinforced handles so that they can be used to fan yourself (or someone else). 

Michael A. Pierce

In his imaginary bio, Michael was born into a family that raised rabbits for sustenance, learning from his aunt Mildred who lived next door, to expertly make rabbit pies. 

In truth, he was inspired by his Grandma Cecile and her friend Dorothy Skelton to make and exhibit artwork beginning when he was 12 years old. Michael, a Virginia native, graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University with a BFA in 1972 and his artwork has been exhibited and collected widely throughout the US and abroad for over sixty years. In 2010, when he turned 60, he received his Master’s in Interdisciplinary Studies in the Studio Arts from VCU where he also worked as a Human Resource Director from 1999 - 2012. He retired from VCU at the end of 2012 after providing 40+ years of state public service in human resources. During that time, he remained an active, successful working artist and also a volunteer for several non-profit arts organization. 

“Who doesn’t like a rabbit?” Michael has asked, knowing full well that there are those who find these images too safe and sweet. Obviously, the image of a rabbit is a loaded image. Rabbits carry symbolic meaning that varies widely and is often contradictory. They are safe, soft, and cuddly and therefore an appropriate symbol for the child in each of us. But they are also fearful, shy, and vulnerable, and sometimes prey for the hunter. At the same time, they remind us of our own sexuality, desire, and abundance speaking to the adult in us. Ultimately, rabbits may symbolically assure us of hope and happiness for the future with new life and new beginnings. The rabbit as trickster and the artist as trickster also play an important part in Michael’s work.

Michael is an emeritus council member of 1708 gallery, the Founding Chair and committee member of The Iridian Gallery at Diversity Richmond and the Chair of the Artspace Gallery Exhibition Committee, all in Richmond, VA. He teaches studio arts at Brightpoint Community College where he recently received their first Outstanding Adjunct Faculty Award. He and his spouse, Ron Lee, completed an artist residency at le Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris during March and April 2023.