Draft:Grace E. Lee

Grace Eun Hyæ Lee (born November 21, 1991) known professionally as Grace Ø is an activist, artist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, songwriter, architectural designer, environmentalist, musicologist, and creative entrepreneur.

Early life

Lee was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, to Sue Y. Shon and Seung R. Lee. She is of South Korean, Tibetan, and Native Alaskan Inuit descent. Her mother, originally from Tibet, migrated to South Korea in the early 1900s. Lee spent her early years primarily in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, and later lived in North New Jersey, Virginia, and New York City.

Her mother's clan were traditional healers who served the Joseon Dynasty, with their last known service to Gojong before the Korean War. Her father, Seung R. Lee, is a direct descendant of the 저의 이씨 clan, historically known as scholars and officials associated with Sejong the Great, who developed the Hangul writing system. Lee’s father is of South Korean and Native Alaskan descent. Her paternal grandmother belonged to the Yupik Indigenous Peoples and her family were well-known mushers and Siberian Husky breeders in the Juneau, Alaska region.

Lee is related to artist and painter Po Kim, who was associated with the Fluxus movement and was well-known alongside fellow Korean artist Nam June Paik. Lee considers Kim a key influence on her artistic style.

Education and early career

She is a classically trained musician and graduate alumni of the prestigious Juilliard School where she was admitted in its Pre-College division. Lee enrolled in the Professional Performing Arts School where she was a vocal and theatre major whilst attending pre-college at New York University Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development where she studied anthropology and pedagogy. She received a scholarship to attend Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts of The New School for advanced philosophy and biomimetic architecture.

At age 17, Lee was introduced to record producer Illmind and within a few years they begun her first studio album. The album project officially initiated in the year 2011 and since then has evolved into a major production stated for world premiere in 2027.

In 2010, during her album's project she was introduced to The Twilite Tone whom since then have become her close mentor. Lee was known as G*LEE under her previous DJ moniker. She was closely associated with DJs DJay Jung and famed Hot 97 radio host DJ Fatfingaz as her early influences who mentored her to DJ. She credits DJ M.O.S. as one of her mentors and together they appeared in several occasions in the New York nightlife circuit alongside his wife DJ Kiss. Their first encounter was at the Help Haiti Foundation charity event as headliner DJs when Lee was asked by Pras of the Fugees to DJ for the charity event produced by Ben Stiller and Sean Penn.

Lee launched the revered collective Liaison Femme in 2012 as Co-Founder along with Whitney Fierce, a member of the dance music project Hercules & Love Affair. Together they created to launch the collective as the world's first all-women led collective of female DJs and artists. Liaison Femme partnered with The Standard Hotel on their first launch opening event debuting their longstanding residency called Mercury Nights located at Le Bain nightclub for several years that had celebrated features from Virgil Abloh, MNDR, and Nina Sky. Liaison Femme reached global success and involved major artists across the world. The collective grew as a private agency and directed music for clients from New York Fashion Week, US Open, to landing features with Mercedes-Benz She's Mercedes campaign. Liaison Femme became the household name for producing special programing for exclusive hospitality groups and music festivals.

Liaison Femme was a prominent influence in the rise of female DJs entering the mainstream industry and record industry. In 2017, Liaison Femme officially announced the collective is no longer active and will evolve to serve its mission to the public as their mission to bring gender parity deemed successful.

In her early 20s, Lee and contemporary artist Awol Erizku were frequent collaborators and released exclusive series with New York based Milk Studios with musical bands The Suzan of Fool's Gold Records and NewVillager of Iamsound. Together they launched a feature collaboration New York fashion brand OAK NYC that debuted exclusively with VICE in 2013.

Lee went to study under famed ecologist and theoretician Richard Register, Founder and Emissary of Ecocity Builders and frequent speaker of environmental conferences with the United Nations. Register was associated with late Italian-American architect Paolo Soleri and together developed an experimental town Arcosanti located in Yavapai County, Arizona.

Career

In 2016, she partnered with acclaimed chef and cookbook author Camille Becerra to create a holistic restaurant. She became widely known as the Co-Owner and Founder of De Maria which received a James Beard Foundation Award for Best Restaurant Design in 2018. De Maria was recognized as an iconic restaurant in New York located in Nolita and received various accolades before its closing in 2018. De Maria became a cultural hub in the neighborhood with involvements of notable visual artists such as Curtis Kulig and Hisham Bharoocha that commissioned with Lee to contribute original mural artwork to the restaurant. The restaurant generated mainstream attention as one of the first restaurants to feature custom curated uniforms by clothing retailer Everlane.

In 2017 Lee was seated as exclusive Creative Director to oversee the conceptualization of American luxury fitness company and health club Equinox Group first hotel venture Equinox Hotel in New York. Lee took on various innovative development projects that scaled from wellness centers to markets across the nation where she led architectural designer and creative director.

Lee relocated to Venice, Los Angeles and joined acclaimed development firm Runyon Group based in Culver City, California seated as the company's first Creative Director in 2019. During her tenure she helped rebrand their award-winning property Platform located in Los Angeles.

On February 11, 2021 Lee and mentor The Twilite Tone made a guest appearance on podcast SOUNDFOOD Episode All Is One: The Power of Unity Consciousness and Creativity with The Twilite Tone and Grace Lee.

Lee announced a premiere preview of her debut single Céleste: Bhairavi Purple representing her musicology project and first studio debut album which she originated in 2011 with an exclusive interview with media publication XLR8R.

Lee took a hiatus since 2021. She is now currently based part-time between Santa Fe, New Mexico and Malibu, California in developing her upcoming energy tech company and healing arts center.