In contrast to the post-modern movement of anti-human minimalism, I call myself a Christian Maximalist. I paint Scripture at full devotional scale by hand. The work comes out of the tradition of the Old Masters, where beauty was never decoration but witness. In 2021, I was blacklisted from the NYC fine art industry for announcing my desire to paint biblical imagery. In 2024, all of my accounts were removed from every major social media platform due to my unapologetic faith and plain speaking on the normalized degeneracy we see running rampant on the cultural front. Half a million followers on instagram, instantly gone. Over 100,000 subscribers on YouTube acquired in a little less than five months, wiped out of the blue.

The controllers of the platforms decided they had heard enough so I build independently now because no algorithm sits between the work and the people it's meant for. My paintings have hung in multiple solo exhibitions in New York City, I was named the inaugural Artist of the Year by the Eileen S. Kaminsky Family Foundation residency, I’ve sold out booths at Art Basel Miami and the work has been covered by Hyperallergic, Whitehot Magazine, Create Magazine, on and on. Now I’m totally independent, and more than 8,000 readers follow my writing and journey behind the easel on Substack to get a better understanding of the man behind the paintings.

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first... If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. They will treat you this way because of my name...” John 15:18-20.
Long story short, being silenced didn't change the work. It clarified it. Every canvas argues that beauty still points to God, and that something real is worth making in a world built on screens. After all, in our technocratic society only accelerating to its inevitable calamity… My art is meant to live in homes and places of worship, not feeds. I am a servant that is utilizing my brush to glorify Jesus Christ and my paintings function as symbolic anchors that distill all that is meaningful to those who follow Him.

Arthur Kwon Lee