Cecil Lee @ Amos Eno Gallery

Founded in 1974, the Amos Eno Gallery is located at 191 Henry Street, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the Amos Eno Gallery is one of New York City’s longest operating artist-run gallery spaces. It offers a diverse calendar of public programming including performance art, film and music, lectures, panels, and workshops throughout the year.   Curated by Aaron Wilder, Unstable Language is an online-only exhibition hosted by Amos Eno Gallery on Artsy.net from October 20 to December 1, 2025. This exhibition invited artists to reflect on art’s power for change and resisting harmful narratives.

"They Should Have Known" 2025 Archival Pigment Print on Canvas - 15 × 20 in - Black Float Frame Series # 1/3 Available for Sale | Artsy $750

Cecil W Lee refers to his work as “Computer-Evolved Art” where he digitally collates layers sourced from painting, photography, and mixed media with digitslly created medium to construct an evocative visual narrative. He’s been experimenting with art and technology since he first obtained a computer in the 1980s. The complexity of his work has evolved over time and it has developed incrementally. He often revisits earlier work as both his art’s meaning and his perspective on it change over time. About his exhibited composition They Should Have Known, Lee says, “The men are uniform yet distinct, resisting complete assimilation. Their presence before the stark wall and national flag represents a warning of enforced compliance and retribution.” The men are predominantly depicted in grayscale, yet are surrounded by color. Is their destiny collective or individual? Do their stories take into account their individual complexities or are their characters viewed in terms of black and white? As Lee indicates, the American flag is a symbol of the federal government, an institution of incredible power dictating “enforced compliance” in a system of “justice” benefitting only the most privileged and promising “retribution” if there’s any dissent.

"Entanglement" 2025 Archival Pigment Print on Canvas - 15 × 20 in - Black Float Frame - Series # 1/3 Available for Sale | Artsy $700

Institutions of discipline from the American criminal justice system to higher education ensure predictability by neutralizing the spontaneous organization of bodies: those labeled loiterers or trespassers, unionists striking for better pay and/or working conditions, those protesting and demanding divestment from genocidal governments, and the list goes on. “I have always looked for new ways of seeing and speaking through images, including the resistance of institutionalized distortions,” says Lee. “If language can imprison thought, art can unfasten it. I like to think of my work not as answers to questions but shifts in paradigms.”