Lee Emma Running received her MFA from the University of Iowa in 2005 and joined the faculty of Grinnell College in the same year. She teaches Sculpture and Drawing, and has a specialization in hand papermaking.
Running’s sculptural installations exist between drawing and sculpture. Her work is an investigation of form and pattern found in the natural world. Recent projects look at systems and structures that are similar in micro and macroscopic scale, such as the way the veins in a leaf mimic those in our bodies as well as a river system seen from space.
Professor Running is the recipient of a grant from the Jentel Foundation in 2010, and has exhibited her work nationally at venues including: The Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA, the Charlotte Street Foundation, Kansas City, MO, Tacoma Contemporary, Tacoma WA, and Pyramid Atlantic Gallery, Washington DC. She is represented by Olsen Larsen Gallery, in Des Moines, IA. Running is also a core member of The Moving Crew Artist Collective, an international collaborative group who’s site responsive work has been recognized in exhibitions at The Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Omaha NE and The Urban Institute for Contemporary Art, Grand Rapids MI. The Moving Crew’s 2010/2011 project, Ideal X, was recently acquired by the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Rijeka.