Jenna Mayilema Lee is a Gulumerridjin (Larrakia), Wardaman, and KarraJarri woman with Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, Irish, and Scottish ancestry.
Lee’s contemporary art practice interrogates language, materiality, and inherited narratives through immersive installation, works on paper, sculpture, and multimedia. Lee examines the spaces between words and the subtleties of language, drawing overlooked nuances into materially driven responses to colonial archives and systems of knowledge.
Working primarily with books as material, Lee engages dictionaries and language publications that have flattened First Peoples’ languages. Using Larrakia linguistics as a guiding framework, she extracts and reworks narratives embedded within these texts. Through deconstruction and reconstruction, she translates them into new forms that respond to the limits and residues of colonial knowledge systems, bringing forward the histories and structures embedded within the materials.
Lee has exhibited nationally and internationally, including at Setouchi Triennale 2025 on Teshima Island, Japan; Awakening Histories at Monash University Museum of Art in 2025; The Neighbour at the Gate at National Art School Gallery in 2025; the TarraWarra Biennial 2023; Melbourne Now at the National Gallery of Victoria; and the inaugural Hyphenated Biennial. Institutional solo exhibitions include Written in stone and seed and star at Edith Cowan University Art Gallery in 2026 and Of Smoke and Rain at Northern Centre for Contemporary Art in 2025.
Her practice has been supported through a number of competitive national and international residencies, including at the Singapore Art Museum in 2026 and the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection, Virginia, USA in 2027. She has also undertaken the Indian Ocean Craft Triennial MAITRI Residency Exchange in India; a residency at Kyoto Art Center supported by Creative Australia; the First Nations Ainu Cultural Exchange in Nibutani, Hokkaidō; and residencies with Desa in Ubud, Bali; Megalo Print Studio in Canberra; and was a Gertrude Contemporary studio artist from 2024–2026.
Lee’s work has been recognised through numerous awards, including the 2024 Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prize, the 2023 Hazelhurst Art on Paper Award (Emerging Artist), the 2020 Wandjuk Marika 3D Memorial Award at the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA), the 2019 Dreaming Award presented by Creative Australia, and was one of 5 shortlisted artist for the Venice Biennale for 2026.
Major Exhibitions
– Awakening Histories, Monash University Art Museum (MUMA) 2025
– Perth Institute of Contemporary Art (PICA) 2026
– The Neighbour at the Gate, National Art School (NAS) Gallery, 2025
– Our Story: Aboriginal Chinese People in Australia, National Museum Australia, 2025
– Balarr Inyiny, Drone Light Show, Darwin Festival, 2023
– IMAxNowness Asia: Now You’re Speakin’ My Language, Video Commission, 2023
– Making Place, Museum of Brisbane, 2022
– Beyond the Binary: Queering the Collection, Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford UK, 2022
– Botanica, Brisbane Botanic Gardens, 2021
– Rite of Passage, QUT Art Museum, 2020
– Making Art Work, Institute of Modern Art, 2020
– Gunyah Kara-wa projection, Brisbane Festival, 2018
Solo Exhibitions
– (Upcoming) Written in stone and seed and star, Edith Cowen University Art Gallery, 2026
– Of Smoke and Rain, Northern Center for Contemporary Art (NCCA), 2025
– Burn before reading, Gertrude Glasshouse, 2025
– Guyu-gwa ganagawai (fire grips me / fire warms me), MARS Gallery, 2024
– Fish Lane Vitrines, 2025
– To Carry Light, Rockhampton Museum of Art, 2023
– To Make Light, Open Studio, Kyoto Art Center, 2022
– Old Flame, MARS Gallery, 2022
– Cont.ained, Artspace Mackay, 2021–22
– Linguistic Prosperity Vol. 2, Milani Gallery, 2021
– Linguistic Prosperity, Firstdraft, 2021
– Body Language, Craft Victoria Makers Vitrine, 2021
– A New Translation, MARS Gallery, 2021
Selected Awards
– National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA), finalist 2026
– National Works on Paper Prize, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, finalist, 2026
– The Australia-China Art Residency Limited (ACAR) Art Prize, 2026
– Ellen José Art Award for young women, 2025
– SHORTLIST - Venice Biennial Artist Team for 2026
– The Ian Potter Cultural Trust, Emerging Artist Grant, 2024
– WINNER - Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prize, SA Museum, 2024
– The Wynne Prize, Art Gallery of NSW, 2024
– The 68th Blake Art Prize, Casula Powerhouse, 2024
– National Works on Paper Prize, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, 2024
– WINNER - Young/Emerging, Hazelhurst Art Centre Works on Paper Prize, 2023
– Deakin University Art Gallery Small Sculpture Prize, 2023
– Hazelhurst Art Centre Works on Paper Prize, 2022
– Victorian Craft Awards, Craft Victoria, 2022
– Footscray Art Prize, Footscray Community Arts Centre, 2021
– WINNER - Wandjuk Marika 3D Memorial Award, NATSIAA, MAGNT, 2020
– National Works on Paper Prize, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, 2021
– 15 Artists Prize, Redcliffe Art Gallery, 2020
– KWM Contemporary First Nations Art Award, King & Wood Mallesons, 2020
– HIGHLY COMMENDED - Ravenswood Australian Women’s Art Prize, 2020
– Libris Award: Contemporary Australian Artist Books, Artspace Mackay, 2020
– WINNER - Dreaming Award, National Indigenous Art Awards, 2019
– John Fries Award, Copyright Agency/UNSW Galleries, 2019
– NATSIAA, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, 2018
– WINNER - Libris Award: Contemporary Australian Artist Books, Artspace Mackay, 2018
Select Achievements & Acquisitions
– Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), 2026
– Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA), 2026
– First Peoples Melbourne Art Tram Commission, 2026
– National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), 2022