Patrick Morales-Lee

Patrick Morales-Lee graduated with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art in 1998 from Plymouth University, where he studied under John Virtue. He has received a handful of awards, appeared twice on Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year, and recently completed the inaugural TURPS painting programme in Margate. His work is held in private collections, including Soho House. Based in Kent, Morales-Lee’s recent work marks a shift from drawing into painting, carrying the immediacy of line into a broader exploration of colour, surface and gesture. Working through layering, erasure and revision, his paintings remain open-ended, allowing meaning to emerge gradually rather than settling into fixed narratives.

Drawing on memory, family and lived experience, the work explores how identity is shaped over time. Recurring female figures, domestic objects and the artist's own presence reflect an investigation into belonging, informed by the experience of growing up with both a birth mother and a foster mother. Rather than illustrating autobiography, the paintings use these relationships as a starting point to consider the fragile and shifting nature of memory, identity and connection.