Esther Schipper, Berlin
On view through October 18, 2025
Berlin’s Esther Schipper Gallery hosts Korean artist Lee Bae’s first solo exhibition, Syzygy, which revisits his profound relationship with charcoal on both material and spiritual levels.
For Lee Bae, charcoal is more than a medium—it’s a tangible form of time, transformation, and life’s cycles. When he moved to France in the 1990s, economic necessity led him to this material, which evolved into a symbol of his identity and heritage. In Korean culture, charcoal is believed to carry the energy of fire, possessing purifying and protective powers. In Lee Bae’s hands, it becomes a “living material” that reflects the rhythms of both nature and humanity.
The exhibition’s title, Syzygy—an astronomical term for the alignment of three celestial bodies—captures the harmony of opposites recurring in the artist’s work: black and white, emptiness and fullness, presence and absence, East and West. Lee Bae’s practice bridges the spiritual quest for balance in Eastern philosophy with the formal inquiries of Western art.
The gallery space is entirely covered in white paper, evoking the serene atmosphere of traditional Korean homes. Visitors must wear special shoe covers to enter, preserving the sanctity of the space. Here, Lee Bae marks the white surface with ink brushstrokes performed on-site, each movement a meditation born from the rhythm of breath and body. These strokes are not spontaneous outbursts but the slow crystallization of deep inner accumulation.
In another section, Lee Bae’s Brushstroke sculptures translate his two-dimensional brush movements into three-dimensional forms. Cast in bronze, these structures retain the fluidity of the brush and the texture of ink while exuding a heavy physical presence. Extending from the walls, they blur the boundaries between painting, sculpture, and drawing.
On another wall, Lee Bae’s iconic Issu du feu series features panels of meticulously arranged and polished charcoal pieces. These surfaces capture and reflect light, creating shimmering effects that shift with the viewer’s movement. Time, nature, and human labor intertwine in these works. As the artist himself states: “Charcoal is a black material, but it produces light.”
Syzygy invites viewers into a silent space where opposites converge. Lee Bae’s charcoal embodies both the ashes of a burned tree and the symbol of rebirth. The exhibition visualizes this paradoxical harmony—the light born from darkness, the movement arising from stillness. Presented during Berlin Art Week, it creates a contemplative state, bearing witness to the transformation of both material and thought.
Apartment No: 26 Note
Lee Bae’s Syzygy dissolves the boundary between painting and meditation. In the darkness of charcoal, there is a silence where light finds itself. Each mark feels like both the burn of the past and the breath of the future.
