Make Room is proud to present Stolen, a new body of work from Raina Lee, exhibiting with the gallery for the first time. Working in sculpture and the distinct visual language of ceramic glaze painting, Lee brings together a series based on works that have been stolen and looted in internationally renowned incidents of theft. From the crown jewels stolen from the Louvre to the heist of the Rembrandts and Vermeer from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the exhibition draws from stolen physical artworks and also the concept of stealing ideas as a practice of art and artists. We learn, we reference, we steal from the past and present, which is a fundamental part of artistic practice. The sculptures are made from stoneware and painted entirely in ceramic glaze. Lee is known for borrowing from the language of painting but reinventing the medium with surface and texture that is unique to ceramic glaze. One work, the Sapphire Crown, is cast from pewter and glass, the first time the artist has worked in metal and glass.

The works in Stolen are based on works that are lost and not recovered, but brought together in an intimate thieves' den. The gallery's red lounge room transforms into a secret hideout where the thief can enjoy a stolen collection. The works are based on paintings by Cézanne (stolen from the Magnani-Rocca Foundation), Vermeer (stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum), Picasso (stolen from the Kunsthal Rotterdam), and a sapphire crown (stolen from the Louvre), as well as other well-known art historical works. Two pieces commemorate the Chinese imperial dog taken by the British after they looted and then burnt down the Chinese Summer Palace, Yuanmingyuan. The lore is that British Captain Dunne took the dog back to England and presented to Queen Victoria "the most perfect little beauty they have ever seen." She infamously named the dog Looty. The word "loot," incidentally, is taken from Hindi "lut," which means "spoils of war," and Sanskrit "lotram," meaning to plunder. Stolen, drawing on the greater concept of theft, highlights colonial robbery on a global scale.

Stolen is installed in the gallery's red lounge, a small room with a velvet couch, which transforms into a secret den for the thief to enjoy. For the run of the exhibition, the viewer becomes the thief.