In Praise of Light: Jane Lee solo exhibition

In traditional Japanese aesthetics, ma has never been simply a blank or standstill—it is a dynamic, poetic state, like the silent pause between musical notes or the fleeting quietness between breaths. It refers to the inner rhythm of things and the layered nature of perception, revealing a dynamic, resonant vacuity. As architect Isozaki Arata once noted, space can only be truly perceived through the passage of time. It is in this interweaving of time and space that a field emerges—one that is difficult to articulate but deeply felt, drawing the viewer into an experience vacillating between stillness and movement.

Jane Lee responds to this aesthetic proposition with finely tuned tactile and visual sensitivity. Through her treatment of light intensity, thoughtful choice of materials, and careful spatial composition, her works become energy fields in resonance with their surroundings—rather than static objects. The refraction, reflection, and fading of light together form a rhythm of viewing, allowing images to register the flow of time through visual shifts while evoking the serenity and transformations inherent in the concept of ma. As a result, space is no longer merely a site to be observed but becomes a living, “organic space”—one that entices the viewer to immerse in variations of light and encounter the poetics that arise where stillness meets motion.

In the fourteen lightbox works from her “Being” series presented in this exhibition, Jane Lee pushes the boundaries of painting even further. Using rosin (a resin derived from pine and coniferous trees) alongside a range of minerals—including rock quartz, amethyst, blue aventurine, olivine—she transforms the subtle glimmer of these natural materials into a visual rhythm. This approach is deeply inspired by the spirit of Zen calligraphy. Rather than following a predetermined logic or concept, Lee allows her body and mind to move intuitively, responding to the sensations of the present moment. The act of creation becomes an improvised dialogue between inner intuition and external materials. For Lee, this process represents a repudiation of rationality in art as much as it is an open, profound state of flow, propelling her work into uncharted waters that transcend language.