Jeewi Lee, born in Seoul in 1987 and based in Berlin, is a multidisciplinary artist exploring memory, time, and decay through site-specific installations, videos, and painting series. Her work focuses on "the trace," representing the past, presence, and absence. Lee's art challenges visual perception by highlighting the unnoticed aspects of everyday life. Traces, though abstract, carry narrative elements, serving as residues of past lives—a visual allegory for lived experiences, history, and memory. Lee, with a South Korean-German background, conducts intensive material research, transforming and combining materials for poetic exploration. She often engages with exhibition spaces, creating site-specific installations. Her art reflects the co-existence of presence and absence, exploring the intersection of past and present.

Education

2018: MA degree in Art in Context, UDK Berlin
2014: Meisterschüler degree in Fine Arts, UDK Berlin
2013: Absolvent degree in Fine Arts, UDK Berlin
2012: Hunter College University New York City
since 2009: Class of Prof. Robert Lucander
since 2008: University of Fine Arts Berlin (UDK Berlin)

Solo exhibitions

2024: Traces of Journeys, signs and symbols, NYC
2023: Palimpsest, Segments of Re-enscription, German Architecture Center DAZ, Berlin; Past Tense, Sexauer Showroom, Berlin
2021: junger westen- solo position, Kunsthalle Recklinghausen; Embodied Memories, OH Gallery, Dakar; Revision, Staedtische Galerie (City Museum) Ostfildern; Vor·wurf, Sexauer Gallery, Berlin
2020: re- , Kunstverein in Hamburg
2018: Inzision, Sexauer Gallery, Berlin; Der Abgang, Lichthaus Arnsberg / Kunstverein Arnsberg
2017: Marbling, Bar Babette, Berlin
2016: Blinder Beifall, Sexauer Gallery, Berlin
2015: Sediment, Arndt Gallery, Berlin; Ich_No_Gramm, Zönotéka, Berlin
2014: Abrieb, ZQM, Berlin
2013: Spurlauschen, DKS Gallery, Berlin

Selected group exhibitions

2024: Non Objectified, Kino Saito, Verplanck/ New York; Into the Woods, Kunsthaus Wien – Klima Biennale Wien; Disonance, Stadtgalerie (City Museum) Kiel
2023: The Notion of Silence, Kunsthaus Erfurt; Painted Matter, Kunstverein Arnsberg; Checkpoint. Border Views from Korea, SAW Center Ottawa; When the sirens howl (it ́s on us), Weltecho Gallery, Chemnitz; "Shift" as part of the project Motus, BAW Garden - Neue National Gallery, Berlin; The Delicate Things That Girls Do, signs and symbols, NYC; Indigo Waves and Other Stories, Gropiusbau Berlin; So it appears, Institute for Contemporary Art Virginia
2022: Riboca 3 - Exercises in Respect, Riga Biennale (postponed); At the Coalface, CID Grand-Hornu Museum, Hainaut; At first sight, Kunsthalle Recklinghausen; Identität nicht nachgewiesen, Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn; Tabula Rasa / Terrain Vague, Staedtische Galerie (City Museum) Nordhorn; Transgresssive. Nonkonforme Zugänge zu Kunst und Stadt, Kühlhaus, Berlin; Checkpoint, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg; An Instant Later, Britta Rettberg Gallery, Munich; Chronicle Disappearance, Mönchehaus Museum Goslar; Témoigner de l’origine, OH Gallery, Dakar; From "Abstraction" to Abstraction, Foundation Stefan Gierowski, Warsaw
2021: By the Sea, Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven; Scratching the Surface, Hamburger Bahnhof Museum der Gegenwart, Berlin; Ruhr Ding: Klima, Urbane Künste Ruhr, Silbersee II am Haltern; Event Tree Analysis, Spiegelarche, Rolldisleben; Flow, Sepulchral Culture Museum, Kassel
2020: la matière, OH Gallery, Dakar; Jahresgabenausstellung, Kunstverein in Hamburg; Wände I Walls, Kunstmuseum Stuttgart; Studio Berlin, Boros Foundation x Berghain, Berlin; Group exhibition, Art Biesenthal, Wehrmuehle; Owned by Others, Museum Island, Berlin; Artists & Allies II, signs and symbols Gallery, NYC; Come Together, Sexauer Gallery, Berlin; Synthetis, permanent installation, Sculpturepark Schlossgut Schwante, Berlin; The Rhythm of Giving and Taking, Kër Thiossane, Dakar; Intersection Tamba- Seeds for future memories, Centre Culturel, Tambacounda
2019: Back There, Kunstverein Tiergarten / Galerie Nord, Berlin; Supplica per un´appendice, Kunstraum, Munich
2018: Would have been II, Palazzo Ziino, Palermo; Die Informale, Buenos Aires; Thresholds. Limits of Space, BNKR, Munich; Would have been, Villa Romana, Florence; Artists & Allies , signs and symbols Gallery, NYC; Kollidierende Gelüste, Korean embassy, Berlin; Last Dance, Kindl, Berlin
2017: Good Friends, c/o Kunstpunkt, Berlin; Wir nennen es Arbeit, Galleria Opere Scelte, Turin; Festival of Future Nows II, Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin; New Adventures in Vexillology #3, Kunstverein Amrum
2016: Struktion- Artweek 2016, Kühlhaus, Berlin; Die Geschichte hat einen Fehler / Zu viele Erzähler, Kunstverein Gütersloh; Dialog der Residuen, Gallery Villa Köppe, Berlin
2015: Kunst&Konstrukt, Westraum, Berlin; Frames of War, Momenta, NYC
2014: Festival of Future Nows, Neue National Galerie, Berlin; Berlin Masters, Arndt Gallery, Berlin
2012: Looking Glass Self, permanent installation - Humbolt University, Berlin

Grants

2024: Artist-Residency Goethe Institute with DRY OCEAN Project Collective, Madrid
2023: Artist-Residency Bethany - Anni & Joseph Albers Foundation, Connecticut; Seed, public sculpture - University of Heidelberg (upcoming 2025)
2022: Artist-Residency Blank 100, Alentejo; Stiftung Kunstfond Neu Start Kultur, Bonn
2021: Art award junger westen, Kunsthalle Recklinghausen; Grant funding for catalogue, Stiftung Kunstfonds, Bonn
2020: Grant Stiftung Kunstfonds, Bonn; Thread artist-residency - Josef & Anni Albers Foundation, Sinthian; Grant CAA Berlin; Residency Al Ma’mal Foundation, Jerusalem (postponed)
2018: Villa Romana art prize, Florence
2015: Kwanjeong Lee, Chonghwan Foundation, Seoul
2012: Dorothea-Konwiarz-scholarship, Berlin
2011: Jungart prize for painting, Berlin

Art Fairs

2024: Art Düsseldorf; Art Brussels
2023: Art Cologne; Art Düsseldorf
2022: Art Düsseldorf
2021: Artissima
2019: Art Berlin; Art Brussels
2018: Art Rotterdam