Jeewi Lee (*1987, Seoul) lives and works in Berlin and Seoul.
Jeewi Lee 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 Field of Fragments, Sexauer Gallery, Berlin
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 Storage Space, Tick Tack, Antwerp
Passage – DMZ Open Exhibition, Paju
Non Objectified, Kino Saito, Verplanck/New York
Into the Woods, Kunsthaus Wien – Climate Biennale Vienna
Dissonance, 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