Twenty Years On, Nikki S. Lee’s Shapeshifting Art Provokes Debates About Cultural Appropriation

The artist Nikki S. Lee seemed to be everywhere—and everyone—in the late ’90s and early 2000s. She is best known for her “Projects” series (1997–2001), in which she attempted to assimilate into various social and subcultural groups—among them young punks, senior citizens, yuppies, and hip-hop fans—by precisely mimicking their styles and mannerisms. She would appear with them in casual group snapshots taken by friends or passersby, the amateur point