The Forum at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco: Lee Mingwei

Warp and Weave
Sunday, October 2, 2022
Grace Cathedral’s mission is to reimagine church with courage, joy, and wonder. Art is an integral part of that vision and mission. In our Year of Connection, art can connect us to others and also to ourselves in ways we can’t imagine until we see it. Every year since 2012 we have offered a residency to artists to create work illuminating the cathedral’s annual theme, and reimagining church as they do so. 
When we thought about this year’s theme of Connection, we immediately thought of the phenomenal New York and Paris-based artist Lee Mingwei. Mingwei’s work draws people in, it asks people to engage with the work and with each other, it is infused with ritual and beauty, and is about the space and time in which it happens. He began as a weaver, and he sees his work in the context of warp and weave, relationship, and connection. His work has been shown around the world, and in 2024, the de Young Museum is offering the first US retrospective of his work.
Join Dean Malcolm Clemens Young in a conversation with Lee Mingwei about the connections between his personal story and his art.
For more about Lee’s residency, visit gracecathedral.org/air2022.
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About the Guest
Born in Taiwan in 1964 and currently living in Paris and New York City, Lee creates participatory installations, where strangers can explore issues of trust, intimacy, and self-awareness. His projects are often open-ended scenarios for everyday interaction, and take on different forms with the involvement of participants and change during the course of an exhibition. The projects also often express a sense of sacredness, ritual, and beauty. Lee received his BFA at California College of the Arts and an MFA from Yale University in 1997 and has held solo exhibitions internationally including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Queensland Gallery of Modern Art, Mori Art Museum, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art and has been featured in biennales in Venice, Lyon, Liverpool, Taipei, Sydney, Whitney, and Asia Pacific Triennials. In the spring of 2024, the de Young Museum is offering the first US retrospective of his work.
About the Moderator
The Very Rev. Dr. Malcolm Clemens Young is the dean of Grace Cathedral. He is the author of The Spiritual Journal of Henry David Thoreau and The Invisible Hand in Wilderness: Economics, Ecology, and God, and is a regular contributor on religion to the Huffington Post and San Francisco Examiner.   
About The Forum 
The Forum is a series of stimulating conversations about faith and ethics in relation to the important issues of our day. We invite inspiring and illustrious people to sit down for a real conversation with the Forum’s host and with you. Our guests range from artists, inventors, and philosophers to pop culturists and elected officials, but the point of The Forum is singular: civil, sophisticated discourse that engages minds and hearts to think in new ways about the world.  gracecathedral.org/the-forum