ABOUT

ARTIST STATEMENT

The space I hold as a queer, Filipino-American is an affront and perversion to the tenets of patriarchy and capitalism in Western society. The dissonant feelings which arise from my lived experience drive me to the absurd comforts of the other, the alien, the machine, and the synthetic in my feverish escape from reality into the digital. I choose to incubate my works digitally, letting them ferment in blue light and the documented oral history of the Internet, before manifesting it in the physical world, where it was never meant to exist, but chooses to against all odds.It is in this pursuit of comfort and desperate consumption that I create work. In BOTTOM TEXT, I force static, memetic text to become a soft sculpture meant to be held. In my video and photographic work like WELCOME TO THE HIGH LIFE and I GOT WASHED UP AT THE GREAT MICHIGAN SEA?!, I embody different anime characters both pre-existing and imagined to reject my own personhood and renounce my human body. Through digital fabrication methods like laser-cutting or 3D printing, I kowtow and lap at all things unreal. In WILL YOU PERISH LIKE A DOG?, it is a dog bone in a bowl etched with the image of an anime girl—in GRAVEN IMAGES, it is the sexual paraphilia of otaku and weeaboos synthesized with the words of Genesis. Despite my good judgement, I will choose the arms of a fictional character, as shown in my erotic writing and dating sim THE ONE MY HEART LOVES. I will happily bequeath myself underneath the trash that comes with consumption as seen in my senior thesis installation, TOUCHING GRASS. All the while, I’ll have my genitalia squashed between the gears of a machine, as seen through my BEWARE EROTIC MACHINERY series, where I create my own suggestive signage through machine embroidering and screenprinting.My work is an invitation to reflect and pause upon the human compulsion to ingest falsehoods and idolatry, and to share my strange inclinations and deep affections in a world that does not welcome it.In 2023, I opened up my personal store, ASTRA OASIS, an online rest stop inspired by the rest stops found along the I-94 in Illinois. It serves beings across the Internet on their weary travels in cyberspace who choose to adorn their bodies with various goods and trinkets.

BIO

Lee Judilla (they/any), is a queer, Filipino-American multimedia artist. After being grown from the cell of an extra-terrestrial tapeworm in a lab outside of Chicago, Judilla received their Associate's in Arts from the College of Lake County (IL) and their Bachelor's in Fine Arts from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (WI).Judilla's work has been showcased in multiple Milwaukee galleries and community spaces, ranging from Cactus Club (Milwaukee, WI) Trout Museum of Contemporary Art (Appleton, WI), Mariyasha's Cabin (Australia). Alongside these exhibitions, their work has been published in different zine publications and magazines, along with in Dear Asian Youth's PRIDE showcase of 2022. They are a 2023 Yale Norfolk program nominee, a recipient of MIAD's Board of Trustees Scholarship, and a member of the Gener8tor Art x Sherman Phoenix 2024 Spring Cohort.

MIDWEST CYBORG

Lee Judilla (they/she/he) ; multidisciplinary artist

ABOUT
PORTFOLIO
CV
INPRNT
TATTOOS
SHOP (WIP)

CV

EDUCATION

BFA New Studio Practice (Writing minor), Milwaukee Institute of Art and & Design, 2024
AA Liberal Studies, College of Lake County, 2020

EXHIBITIONS

2024

MIAD Senior Thesis Exhibition, Milwaukee, WI

2023

UWM Union Art Exhibition #51, Milwaukee, WI
Punks, Geeks, and Lovers, MIAD Gallery at the Ave, Milwaukee, WI
The Human Body Tomorrow, Some Fool's, Milwaukee, WI
Annual TMA Contemporary Exhibition, Trout Museum of Art, Appleton, WI
Of the Heart, Milwaukee LGBTQ Community Center, Milwaukee, WI
Don’t Call Me Junior, MIAD, Milwaukee, WI
Two, Some Fool’s, Milwaukee, WI
Sacral, TASK Creative, Milwaukee, WI
END OF A SMALL SANCTUARY, Ergonomica project space, Milwaukee, WI (solo show)
bless’ed curse 03, catabasis at Mariyasha’s Cabin, Australia
Plasmatic, Frederick Avenue Gallery, Milwaukee, WI

2022

Pride Month Queer Asian online portfolio showcase (organized by Dear Asian Youth x PRISM)
POC-curated show, Var West Gallery, Milwaukee, WI (Group show with Unearthed Collective)
faux real, Between Two Galleries, Milwaukee, WI (Group show)
Digital Nostalgia, Var West Gallery, Milwaukee, WI (Group show with Unearthed Collective)
MULTIPLIED, Between Two Galleries, Milwaukee, WI (Group show)

2021

"Mixed Media Invitational: Healing and Material Processes," Art In Public Places Project, Waukegan, IL
PULL (2021) featured in This Last Year film festival by Seen|Scene MKE

2020

39th Annual CLC Student Art Competition, Grayslake, IL

ACCOLADES/AWARDS

2024

Gener8tor Art x Sherman Phoenix Spring Cohort Member, Milwaukee, WI

2023

Yale Norfolk MIAD Nominee

2020

MIAD Board of Trustees Scholarship, Milwaukee, WI

CURATORIAL EXPERIENCE

please excuse my dope asian swag., MIAD Community Hub, Milwaukee, WI

PUBLICATIONS

2023

MIAD Junior Project Catalog, Milwaukee, WI
WYRD, Issue 2, Milwaukee, WI

2022

Trans creator zine, Los Angeles, CA (with Trans Defense Fund LA)
"CLOSET" (2022) featured in The Asian Cyborg and Othered Bodies Zine, New York City, NY
Queer Connections zine, Milwaukee, WI

2021

"PANTASYA STORE" (2021), "FRUiTS FANTASY" (2021), "TEN OF CUPS" (2021) featured in MIAD Pocket Gallery November Issue
"WELCOME2MYPAGE" (2021) in MIAD Pocket Gallery October Issue
"THE GIRL FROM MEMORY" (2021) in MIAD Pocket Gallery April Issue
"The Elements: Fire" (2021 cardboard and clay sculpture) in MIAD Pocket Gallery March Issue
"Jason and Medea" (2021 linocut print), "Neuronetic" (2021 wire sculpture) in MIAD Pocket Gallery February Issue

2020