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Jeewi Lee

–

Residual Memories
GASAG Art Prize 2026

Abstract, microscopic-style close-up of an ochre-colored, mottled organic shape set against a dark, subtle textured background.

Jeewi Lee, Inner Monologue Popenguine 25-80, 2026

© Courtesy of Jeewi Lee & Phillip C. Reiner

The Berlinische Galerie presents Jeewi Lee’s first institutional solo exhibition in Berlin in conjunction with the GASAG Art Prize 2026. For her serial paintings, sculptures, site-specific installations and interventions the artist draws on simple, seemingly worthless materials where traces of time and transience are inscribed as memories. These traces are the starting point for her artistic research, where materials analysis blends with aspects of Taoist philosophy and personal mythology to create a visual universe that is poetic and meditative. Under the title “Residual Memories” the recipient of the GASAG award makes use of sand, an apparently everyday material and yet one of global significance. Sand fuses minerals, rock, organic residues and, more recently, microplastics. It is found in concrete, glass, microchips and water filters and it forms the basis for our contemporary built environment, but its worldwide consumption as a resource has left it in increasingly short supply.

  • All the explanatory exhibition texts are available in German, Simple German and English.
  • There is no information in German Sign Language.
  • Some outreach events are held in or with German Sign Language.
  • There is step-free access to the exhibition.
  • The exhibition includes a work composed of sounds. It can be heard throughout the exhibition. 
  • Assistive listening is not supported by induction systems or neck loops.
  • Most of the exhibits and explanatory texts can be seen and read from a seated position.
  • Some artworks are on the floor. They do not stand out clearly due to a lack of contrast. 
  • There are no seatings. Wheelchairs and folding stools can be borrowed free of charge from the cloakroom. 
  • The exhibition is not brightly lit.
  • Most of the exhibition texts are designed with strong contrast.
  • All the panel texts are available as a large-print brochure that you will find at the entrance to the exhibition.
  • A high-contrast floor guidance system will help you to track a path through this exhibition to the hall around the stairway. 
  • There are no touch models

Click here for information about museum accessibility.

Do you have any other questions about accessibility? Christine van Haaren, Head of Education and Outreach will be happy to answer them via e-mail haaren@berlinischegalerie.de or via phone +49 (0)30-789 02-836.

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Photo: Jeewi Lee in her atelier

Jeewi Lee, winner of the GASAG Art Prize 2026

© Ecaterina Rusu

About the artist

Jeewi Lee (*1987 in Seoul, South Korea), whose origins are Korean and German, studied painting from 2008 until 2014 at the University of the Arts in Berlin and Hunter College in New York. Since 2015 her work has been shown at many exhibitions in Germany and abroad. She received the Villa Romana Prize in 2018, the Kunstpreis junger westen in 2021 and a Villa Aurora fellowship in 2025. Jeewi Lee lives and works in Berlin.

GASAG Art Prize

Initiated by GASAG, the award has been presented in partnership with the Berlinische Galerie since 2010. Every two years, the partners honour an outstanding artistic position at the interface between art, science, and technology.

Photos from the opening

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