Der hellste Schatten

Opening in the height of summer, Der hellste Schatten (The Brightest Shade) brings together Youngju Yim, Seungjoo Lee, and Sooyoung Han — three Korean painters based in Germany whose works attend to what lingers beneath life's luminescent surface. While July is defined by intense light and heightened visibility, these artists turn toward the realms that words often fail to capture: fading impressions of others, overlooked familiar surroundings, and emotions that resist clear definition. Through fluid forms, serene observations of everyday life, and layered surfaces, their paintings reveal shade not as the absence of light, but as a space of reflection, memory, and inner attention.

Together, they invite viewers to slow down and encounter the subtle traces that shape how we feel, remember, and perceive the world.

Youngju Yim translates the tensions of a new environment into layered landscapes of the mind. Moving from the quiet familiarity of Leipzig to the dynamic energy of Berlin, Yim documents the everyday friction of the city and the impressions of people encountered in daily life. Across his practice, moments of exhaustion, intimacy, and indifference coexist not as crisp portraits, but as raw sensations. In his series Collected Forms of Others and Collected Forms of Your Past, his canvases expose the imperfection found in our relationships — both with others and with our own history. What truly lingers in his work are the incomplete traces of life that words cannot explain. Yim earned his Diploma from the Academy of Fine Arts (HGB) Leipzig and has spent over twenty years developing his artistic voice across Germany and South Korea.

Seungjoo Lee treats painting as a steady, continuous practice rooted in the absolute fact that "life is continuing." Documents of unpretentious scenes surround him — from ordinary domestic interiors in his Job series to outdoor fields of wild grass in his Ungraspable series. In his pale, sun-bleached palettes, the vibrant heat of the world retreats, leaving a muted stillness over the canvas where the elusive layers of passing time are calmly deposited. Lee received his Diploma from HGB Leipzig in 2022. Building on his recent solo exhibition in Seoul, he continues to develop a dynamic presence, actively expanding his practice across the contemporary art scenes of both South Korea and Europe.

Sooyoung Han explores how the subtle stimuli of daily life build within us into complex emotional states. Her compositions feature soft, expanding color fields cut through by sharp vertical lines. By frequently painting over older works, earlier traces remain as physical strata beneath the surface, accumulating the weight of time and lived emotion. The vertical lines, which at first appear as sharp external disruptions, reveal themselves to be fragile elements calmly held within the painting's structure. Han studied Industrial Design before receiving her Diploma from Burg Giebichenstein Halle in 2020. Following her successful solo exhibition in Seoul last year, she continues to solidify her international presence, engaging deeply with contemporary art audiences in both South Korea and Europe.

iros.gallery is a contemporary gallery based in Charlottenburg, Berlin, founded in November 2025. Focused on painting and dedicated to fostering dialogue between Korean and European artists, the gallery brings an international perspective to one of Berlin's most established cultural neighbourhoods. Through carefully considered exhibitions and active participation in the Berlin art scene, iros.gallery is committed to introducing emerging voices whose practices deserve wider attention. Der hellste Schatten marks the gallery's fifth exhibition.