Between Light and Substance: Dialogues of Nature, Time, and Existence
Lee & Bae’s booth for Art Genève 2026 brings together five distinctive artistic voices; Boree Hur, Sangmin Lee, Jinwook Yeom, Bongsang Yoo, and Seunghee Lee, each exploring the thresholds where
materiality encounters immateriality, and where nature, time, and human experience are reimagined through art. Together, they form a resonant dialogue that opens the visible world into deeper realms of
perception.
Boree Hur transforms everyday fabrics and painterly gestures into metaphors of the human body and the cycles of birth and death. Beginning with the tangled vitality of forests and seas, she translates
their overwhelming energy into dense compositions that oscillate between serenity and turbulence. By incorporating materials such as work clothes, bedding, or traditional Korean textiles like Sochang, Hur
imbues her works with a tactile presence that blurs the line between painting and sculpture. Her practice suggests that the traces of life, garments worn, fabrics softened through use, become vessels of
memory and embodiment, reshaped into forms that speak of resilience, vulnerability, and transformation.
Sangmin Lee explores the “inner world of all things” through labor intensive carvings on thick glass sheets. His process grinding and polishing glass surfaces by hand with diamond sandpaper, resembles an
act of meditation or self-discipline. Within his works, light becomes an essential medium, revealing hidden essences and collapsing the boundaries between past and present. Shadows refract and overlap
like mirages, evoking layered temporalities and elusive realities. For Lee, glass is not merely a vessel but a site where memory, presence, and the immaterial converge, allowing viewers to experience the
silent dialogue between substance and light.
Jinwook Yeom dismantles fixed perspectives in her forest paintings, replacing conventional landscape representation with fluid monochrome structures. Her canvases, composed of rhythmic brushstrokes
and tonal gradations, immerse the viewer in an environment that is both structured and boundless. Rejecting linear readings, Yeom’s forests unfold dynamically from sky to earth, from light to shadow
inviting the gaze to wander freely. Her work challenges the boundaries of painting as a flat medium, transforming it into a perceptual field where nature becomes a metaphor for multiplicity, transience,
and open-ended interpretation.
Bongsang Yoo constructs ethereal landscapes using an unexpected medium: steel nails. With over 300,000 precisely aligned pin nails, he creates shadowed depths that flicker with subtle light. His works
often depict dark, dense forests where fragile illuminations emerge, suspended between melancholy and hope. The industrial weight of nails paradoxically gives rise to delicate, dreamlike images that shift
with the viewer’s position and mood. Yoo resists prescribing meaning, instead inviting silent contemplation. His luminous shadow-worlds are not declarations but spaces of quiet resonance fragile, yet
gently illuminating the path of reflection.
Seunghee Lee bridges cultural tradition and contemporary sensibility through his mastery of ceramics. Trained in both Korean and Chinese traditions, and rooted in Jingdezhen’s historic porcelain practices,
Lee reinterprets East Asian ceramic heritage with innovative forms and series such as Porcelain Paintings, Space of 8mm, and Bamboo. His works embody both continuity and experimentation: the fragility
of porcelain is paired with sculptural boldness, and the weight of history is infused with fresh interpretations. In doing so, Lee situates his practice within a dialogue of time, cultural lineage, and material
transformation.
Together, these five artists create an immersive environment where light and shadow, vitality and stillness, memory and renewal converge. The booth is conceived as a contemplative space a journey
through textures, materials, and temporalities that encourages viewers to reflect on the fragility and resilience of life, and on the unseen layers of existence beneath surface appearances
