Oil Award 2026

Yeji Lee

The Temperature of the Night

Jackson's Art Prize 2026
Oil
Canvas
130.3 x 89.4 cm

“My work explores how the presence of bodies in space, shaped by movement, breath, and repetition, generates a kind of atmospheric memory. I am interested in how spaces retain subtle traces of collective life: the weight of time, the texture of air, and the residue of light. Rather than capturing fixed images or specific narratives, I use the materiality of paint to allow impressions to surface gradually – these may be scenes once glimpsed or forms that have not yet found their names. For me, painting is a way to make visible the quiet, often unspoken interactions that occur between people, place, and time.”