The timed auction ends Thursday August 27th at 8:00pm. Whoever holds the highest bid at the auction closing time wins.
Justin Lees
I'll Just Ring It Off The Wall, 2023
Oil on canvas
Height 40 cm x Width 30 cm
Artwork is unframed and ready to hang & comes with a certificate of authenticity
Starting Bid: $450
I’ll Just Ring It Off the Wall is a bold, physical painting that captures Justin Lees’ instinctive and visceral approach to mark-making. The work carries a sense of immediacy — as though each gesture has been struck into the surface with urgency and conviction, echoing the raw energy of expression itself.
With its layered brushwork and scraped textures, the piece sits between control and release, where intention collides with accident. The title suggests an improvisational spirit, like a riff or phrase pulled straight from the air, underscoring the work’s rhythm and movement.
Part of Lees’ broader practice of translating emotion into raw abstraction, I’ll Just Ring It Off the Wall embodies the artist’s ongoing dialogue with energy, memory, and atmosphere.
Artist Bio: Justin Lees
Born 1981. Lives and works in Mulubinba / Newcastle, Australia.
Justin Lees is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans painting, sculpture, photography, and design. With a bold abstract expressionist style characterised by visceral brushwork, vivid colour palettes, and textured layers, Lees’ work evokes a raw emotional language that invites deep reflection on memory, nature, and the human condition.
A self-taught artist, Lees has exhibited widely across Australia and internationally, with over ten solo exhibitions since 2004. His work draws on personal experience, intuition, and introspection—creating pieces that move between chaos and harmony, often anchored by landscape or internal states. Whether working on large-scale canvases or intimate studies, Lees’ approach is immersive, gestural, and deeply felt.
After a period of part-time practice between 2008 and 2014, Lees returned to full-time artmaking with renewed energy in 2019, when he was appointed Artist in Residence at the Hunter Medical Research Institute (HMRI). This unique collaboration between science and art became a catalyst for further multidisciplinary experimentation and led to a series of sold-out solo exhibitions.
In 2023, he presented I Saw Your Ghost Tonight at Wester Gallery—a major solo exhibition accompanied by a self-published book and a short documentary, which he co-produced and scored. The project reflected his ability to synthesise multiple creative forms into a singular, emotive narrative.
Lees has undertaken a number of significant public and private commissions, including large-scale works and curated interior projects. His work is held in private collections across Australia, New Zealand, England, and Europe.
In 2024, he was awarded the David Strachan Memorial Prize for Contemporary and Non-Traditional Practice, and was a finalist in both the Gosford Art Prize and the LEDA Gallery Prize, as well as a semi-finalist in the Newcastle Club Foundation Art Prize.
In 2024, Lees undertook an international residency in France, where he began developing a new body of work exploring the interplay between visual art and sound. The residency marked a pivotal moment in expanding his practice into multi-sensory installation and laid the foundation for his next major solo project.
With a growing national and international profile, Justin Lees continues to explore new territory—challenging traditional forms while remaining deeply connected to emotion, landscape, and memory. His works offer a poetic and powerful encounter for viewers and a compelling voice for contemporary Australian art.
Dimensions:
40 cm x 30 cm