Jeehye Song: Suspended Between Staying and Fading
Presence Under Pressure
Jeehye Song – Painting
Jeehye Song works from a state of quiet ambivalence. Her paintings hold figures in suspended conditions, neither fully present nor entirely withdrawn. The body appears physically there, yet internally reduced. Rather than depicting action, she concentrates on the moment when energy fades and presence becomes fragile.
Her figures lean, hang, or sink into staged interiors defined by artificial light and hard shadows. Luminous, almost tender colors overlay scenes of uncertainty. The tension does not arise from narrative events but from lowered intensity. In a cultural climate that demands visibility and productivity, Song situates exhaustion as a structural condition. The body does not collapse. It softens.
In more recent works, the space expands toward landscape. Water surfaces, plants and horizons gain weight while the figure becomes smaller, less central. What remains is not disappearance but trace. The body persists as a fragile element within a larger field, no longer dominant yet still there.
Current Presentation
Jeehye Song
hey, I’m still here
30 January – 14 March 2026
Wentrup
The exhibition marks her first presentation with Wentrup.
In 2025, Song was awarded the Kunstpreis junger westen in the category of painting, one of Germany’s longest-running awards for emerging artists. The prize was accompanied by a solo exhibition at Kunsthalle Recklinghausen.
Born in 1991 in South Korea, Song completed her studies at the Düsseldorf Art Academy in 2021 as a master student of Prof. Andreas Schulze. Her work has been shown internationally in solo and group exhibitions across Europe, Asia and the United States. asdf
Artworks and Studio Views
Jeehye Song: On the left, I’m Burning, 2024, acrylic and pencil on paper, 73 × 60 cm. On the right, The Weight of Useless Worry, 2025, oil on linen, 160 × 130 cm. Image courtesy the artist.
Jeehye Song: On the left, I Built a Clay House in My Head and Live in It, exhibition view, 2025. On the right, I Built a Clay House in My Head and Live in It, exhibition view, 2025. Photo copyright IAH. Image courtesy the artist.
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