Marta Lee’s “Sill Life” offers an artistic view of life outside her studio. (photo courtesy of Babst Gallery)

Babst Gallery presents “A Room of One’s Own,” a solo exhibition of paintings by Marta Lee curated by Gilles Heno-Coe running from Saturday, Jan. 20 through Saturday, Feb. 17.

It marks Lee’s first solo exhibition in Los Angeles. As an artist, Lee has an earnest devotion to still life and is always looking for objects to paint that are either uncommon or so ordinary that few would think twice about them. They include old cans and coffee mugs, discarded pieces of foam and cardboard, paper fruit cartons and other ubiquitous objects. Other times, the objects have intense personal significance and history, such as a colorful object she’s had since childhood and which she first painted in 2015, or the custard bun paper from a Chinese bakery that has appeared in works since 2019.

“One of the reasons I make a still life is to play with the combination of multiple perspectives,” Lee said. “I never strive to look at the objects from the same angle every time. I allow them to distort in some way.”

“A Room of One’s Own” (2021) is an aerial view of the artist’s bedroom. The raw linen circle in the middle of the painting, which marks the spot where Lee’s paint can was placed, doubles as a compositional element that again emphasizes the overall flatness and materiality of the painting. The work, like many others in the exhibition, tells a story. In this case, it’s about a breakup and a new relationship, clues to which are embedded in the individual objects. Another recent work, “Sill Life” (2023), shows a scene as observed looking out of Lee’s home studio window.

Lee lives and works in Brooklyn. Babst Gallery is located at 413 S. Fairfax Ave. For information call (424)600-2544, or visit babstgallery.com.