Sadie Lee is an award-winning British figurative painter. Her challenging paintings focus on a range of subjects, including the representation of women in art, sexuality, gender and the ageing body. She has been selected to show work in many groups shows including exhibitions at the Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art, The I.C.A. and the Museum of London. Solo shows include exhibitions at the National Portrait Gallery (London), Manchester City Art Gallery, Schwules Museum (Berlin) and Gallery of Modern Art (Slovenia).   

Her 1997 solo exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery ‘A Dying Art: Ladies of the Burlesque’ was result of winning the prestigious BP Travel Award. For the exhibition, she met and painted fifteen former American Burlesque dancers, now elderly and retired, in costumes that reflected their past.    

In 2007 she made the series and then He was a She, a collection of paintings of legendary drag queen and Warhol Superstar, Holly Woodlawn, who was immortalised in Lou Reed’s infamous song Walk on the Wild Side. The exhibition premiered at Salford Museum and Art Gallery and travelled to Liverpool, London and Berlin.  

 Sadie Lee has lectured on her paintings at institutions including The National Portrait Gallery London, Manchester City Gallery, Tate Modern, the Victoria and Albert Museum and Walker Gallery, Liverpool. Since 1998 she has worked as a freelance art educator at the National Portrait Gallery, London, regularly teaches life drawing at The Wallace Collection and is the Course Pathway Leader for the Contemporary Portrait BA at The Art Academy, London. Sadie Lee’s paintings are in private collections including those of Oscar-winning costume designer Sandy Powell, Hugh Cornwell – lead singer of seminal Punk band The Stranglers and notable American collector Candice B. Groot.