Lee Powell is an Australian painter whose practice operates at the intersection of collapse, reconstruction, and identity.
His work is grounded in structure rather than expression. Painting did not emerge as a stylistic pursuit, but as a disciplined response to rupture — a way of testing what holds when systems fail. Over time, this developed into a rigorous visual practice concerned with excavation, consequence, and endurance.
Powell works through layered surfaces built by accumulation and removal. Grids fracture, marks erode, and traces persist. The paintings behave less as images than as artifacts — sites where prior states remain legible without explanation. Meaning is not declared. It is inferred from pressure, absence, and residue.
The practice is organised as a closed system rather than isolated series.
Excavation addresses condition — what exists prior to action.
After the Act maps process — how action produces identity through consequence.
What Remains examines structure — what continues to govern once change is exhausted.
This progression reflects a sustained investigation into authority, responsibility, impermanence, and coherence. The work resists spectacle and narrative resolution, favouring restraint, durability, and internal logic.
Alongside his visual practice, Powell is the creator of ManOS: A Modern Operating System for Men, a parallel body of work concerned with values, presence, and responsibility. Both practices originate from the same inquiry: how systems — personal or structural — are rebuilt under real pressure.
Lee Powell lives and works in Melbourne.
For private viewing and acquisition enquiries, explore the work.
Further writing is available at getmanos.com.
