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

2026 Solo-Ausstellung, GASAG Kunstpreis, Berlinische Galerie, Berlin (upcoming)

Solo-Ausstellung, Galerie Meyer-Riegger, Karlsruhe (upcoming)

‍ ‍ Where Fragments Linger by the Sea, Kunsthalle, Wilhelmshaven (upcoming)

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

2025 Affinities, Kunsthalle Recklinghausen

‍ ‍ Festival of Futures Now, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin

‍ ‍Undercurrents - Waves Walking on the Water, Sea Art Festival – Busan Biennale, Busan

Au Charbon! Pour un design post-carbone, Le Centre Historique Minier, Lewarde

All Good Things Are Wild and Free, Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven

‍ ‍Echoes of Gaia, The Page Gallery, Seoul

‍ ‍ The Torment of Matter, Othergrounds, Kunstquartier Bethanien, Berlin

‍ ‍I thought, I had lost half a soul here, Meyer Riegger Gallery, Berlin

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

‍ ‍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

2025 GASAG Kunstpreis, Berlinische Galerie, Berlin

Villa Aurora Grant, LA

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

2026 Art Düsseldorf (upcoming)

Art Basel Hongkong

Arco Madrid

2025 Art Cologne

Frieze Seoul

Art Basel

Art Basel Honkong

2024 Art Düsseldorf

Art Brussels

2023 Art Cologne

Art Düsseldorf

2022 Art Düsseldorf

2021 Artissima

2019 Art Berlin

Art Brussels

2018 Art Rotterdam