Stella Zee was born in Shanghai, China. As a young child, her family moved to HongKong. It was during these formative years that her grandfather, a renowned calligrapher in China, recognized her intuitive ability and encouraged her to practice. She filled pages of calligraphy, establishing a philosophical expressionistic style imbued with poetic essence.
With the family’s move to Brazil, Stella ingested its enveloping environment, vivid color, light, and exuberant cultural rhythm inculcating her sensibility further to an added philosophical and poetic level. This dynamic interrelationship between East and West created the passion in her painting.
The next key in her development would come when she attended the School of the Art Institute and earned an M.F.A. in Painting. Under the guidance of the SAIC advisors, introducing her to the Western abstract approach of objective line, form and space, she bound together the complex cultural influences which became the further basis of her painting.
Heralding her work, Richard Loving, an artist and curator, chose her to be included in the Art Institute Museum Show. Stella’s work has been shown and collected in Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, California and Belgium. She has taught at the School of the Art Institute and the Evanston Art Center. She lives and works in Chicago.