Sometimes lines are drawn that mark us off distinctly from everything else. This delimitation is deceptive. What once appeared solid and impenetrable reveals a shakiness, bringing to light that which was once believed to be forgotten. Impressions emerge and point to the indissoluble bonds that keep us from falling out of the world, away from untenable illusions and closer toward that which can be grasped.
– NYC 2024

As hard as it gets, holding on can get you to the other side of a situation. Specific attachments can be contested as can the sides but the intimacies found beyond self-disclosure require fidelity. Practical work grounds the line. Relationality ensures transference. Push and pull won’t let you down.
– March 2022, Tokyo

Where I am at now is working on how I can be useful without feeling used.  How can I have a sense of self-fulfillment without an oversized ego? Can I be humble, but not self-deprecating?

— Margaret Lee

I stopped using my art to win arguments. I can’t control my narrative or how people perceive my work.

— Margaret Lee

Being obsessed with one’s personal infrastructure is not something I’m not comfortable with, but it is good to do regular check-ins. Look at the structure of one’s life: how’s the mental and physical health? Am I connecting with friends or isolating? Am I thinking about others and how I can contribute to the world, or am I stuck in a weird self-centered spiral?

— Margaret Lee

I was very ambitious to have an expansive life. I was willing to work very hard to find, meet, converse, and collaborate with like-minded people. But I never wanted professional success, because it scared me. I felt it would carry the same disciplinary baggage I so desperately escaped from.

— Margaret Lee

I feel like people forget that the first couple events I threw in the space were dance parties, not art exhibitions. I had been curating a bit before officially launching 179 Canal, but it was never my intention to open an artist’s run space.

— Margaret Lee

Libraries were really important places for me as it was one of the places where my parents wanted me to spend time. But rather than being “studious,” I instead made a beeline to the magazine section. I would sit and read magazines for hours on end. I became a magazine junkie and anywhere I went, I looked for magazines.

— Margaret Lee

One of the hardest parts of deciding to retire was having to look back, which I hate doing. I hate nostalgia — I prefer to move forward. But in order to make these big life decisions, you have to do that work where you’re like, “where did I start? Where am I now? What happens in the middle? Am I good? Is this where I'm supposed to be? Or am I supposed to be somewhere else?”

— Margaret Lee

Practically, I had to ask myself, “if I want to retire, what are the necessary conditions?” The practical was much easier to address as it all pointed to building internal infrastructure that is less dependent on a top-down founder led system. Essentially, I had to build up the infrastructure of the gallery to be less dependent on me.

— Margaret Lee

When you build something from scratch, you feel your fingerprints all over, and it is hard to know what is and what isn’t an extension of you.

— Margaret Lee