The installation view of the exhibition, Courtesy of Space Pado
When an exhibition closes, the gallery is left with screw holes, damaged walls and dust accumulated during its run. Before another exhibition can begin, those traces must be filled, sanded, cleaned and painted over.
Lee Ye-ran’s solo exhibition HAPPEN!: White Shadows After the Event focuses on the labor required to return an exhibition space to an apparently neutral condition. Curated by Lee Yu-min, the exhibition runs through Nov. 9.
Lee works both as a visual artist and an exhibition-space operator. Moving between these roles has allowed her to experience labor from two positions: as an artist producing work for display and as an operator preparing and maintaining the environment in which that work is presented.
The exhibition begins with the premise that an exhibition is an event shaped by both planning and contingency. Works temporarily occupy a space before being removed, leaving physical marks that reveal the gallery’s gradual deterioration.
The operator’s work resumes at that point. Holes are repaired with putty, uneven surfaces are sanded and pale marks are covered with white paint so that the walls can support another exhibition.
This labor largely disappears when the next show opens because attention shifts back to the artworks. Each cycle of installation and removal therefore depends on repetitive maintenance that remains outside the audience’s view.
The exhibition presents two connected groups of paintings developed from Lee’s experience.
New works including Let’s Make a Clean Wall, Looking at White for Too Long Makes Me Cry, Darkness, Trial and Error and Go, Cleaning Squad directly address the restoration of exhibition spaces. Repairing walls, sanding surfaces, cleaning floors and applying paint appear as the central actions within the images.
A second group of works moves away from documentary observation and adopts the narrative structure of boys’ adventure comics. These paintings include A Desperate Crisis, Bang! Toward a New Place, Sharang: A Thread of Light Comes to Me and It Is Still Too Early to Go Home.
Within these works, Lee’s recurring ghost-like figures are described as NPCs, or non-player characters. In video games, NPCs commonly occupy secondary roles, filling the background or assisting the player’s progress.
The installation view of the exhibition, Courtesy of Space Pado
Lee shifts these anonymous figures from the edges of the story to its centre. They discover new abilities during moments of crisis, place themselves at risk to protect others and ultimately survive.
The use of fantasy is not intended to idealise labor or turn difficult working conditions into heroic spectacle. Instead, it imagines a world in which sustained effort receives a recognisable response—an outcome that repetitive work does not necessarily produce in reality.
Gallery operators and artists both depend on repetition and accumulated effort, but their labor does not always lead to equal recognition or financial compensation. Maintenance becomes invisible once an exhibition begins, while artistic labor can also remain socially and economically insecure.
Lee’s dual position allows the exhibition to move between recording work as it occurs and imagining a different narrative for those performing it. One group of paintings documents the physical actions needed to sustain an exhibition space, while the other gives the worker the role of protagonist.
HAPPEN!: White Shadows After the Event attempts to give material form to working time that would otherwise disappear after an exhibition. It also considers whether people assigned supporting roles can move beyond those positions and construct narratives of their own.
The exhibition runs from Oct. 28 through Nov. 9, 2026, and is open from 1 to 7 p.m. Photography is by Choi Cheol-lim.
SayArt.net Maria Kim sayart2022@gmail.com
Lee Ye-ran’s ‘HAPPEN!: White Shadows After the Event’ examines gallery maintenance and recasts background workers as protagonistsThe installation view of the exhibition, Courtesy of Space Pado
When an exhibition closes, the gallery is left with screw holes, damaged walls and dust accumulated during its run. Before another exhibition can begin, those traces must be filled, sanded, cleaned and painted over.
Lee Ye-ran’s solo exhibition HAPPEN!: White Shadows After the Event focuses on the labor required to return an exhibition space to an apparently neutral condition. Curated by Lee Yu-min, the exhibition runs through Nov. 9.
Lee works both as a visual artist and an exhibition-space operator. Moving between these roles has allowed her to experience labor from two positions: as an artist producing work for display and as an operator preparing and maintaining the environment in which that work is presented.
The exhibition begins with the premise that an exhibition is an event shaped by both planning and contingency. Works temporarily occupy a space before being removed, leaving physical marks that reveal the gallery’s gradual deterioration.
The operator’s work resumes at that point. Holes are repaired with putty, uneven surfaces are sanded and pale marks are covered with white paint so that the walls can support another exhibition.
This labor largely disappears when the next show opens because attention shifts back to the artworks. Each cycle of installation and removal therefore depends on repetitive maintenance that remains outside the audience’s view.
The exhibition presents two connected groups of paintings developed from Lee’s experience.
New works including Let’s Make a Clean Wall, Looking at White for Too Long Makes Me Cry, Darkness, Trial and Error and Go, Cleaning Squad directly address the restoration of exhibition spaces. Repairing walls, sanding surfaces, cleaning floors and applying paint appear as the central actions within the images.
A second group of works moves away from documentary observation and adopts the narrative structure of boys’ adventure comics. These paintings include A Desperate Crisis, Bang! Toward a New Place, Sharang: A Thread of Light Comes to Me and It Is Still Too Early to Go Home.
Within these works, Lee’s recurring ghost-like figures are described as NPCs, or non-player characters. In video games, NPCs commonly occupy secondary roles, filling the background or assisting the player’s progress.
The installation view of the exhibition, Courtesy of Space Pado
Lee shifts these anonymous figures from the edges of the story to its centre. They discover new abilities during moments of crisis, place themselves at risk to protect others and ultimately survive.
The use of fantasy is not intended to idealise labor or turn difficult working conditions into heroic spectacle. Instead, it imagines a world in which sustained effort receives a recognisable response—an outcome that repetitive work does not necessarily produce in reality.
Gallery operators and artists both depend on repetition and accumulated effort, but their labor does not always lead to equal recognition or financial compensation. Maintenance becomes invisible once an exhibition begins, while artistic labor can also remain socially and economically insecure.
Lee’s dual position allows the exhibition to move between recording work as it occurs and imagining a different narrative for those performing it. One group of paintings documents the physical actions needed to sustain an exhibition space, while the other gives the worker the role of protagonist.
HAPPEN!: White Shadows After the Event attempts to give material form to working time that would otherwise disappear after an exhibition. It also considers whether people assigned supporting roles can move beyond those positions and construct narratives of their own.
The exhibition runs from Oct. 28 through Nov. 9, 2026, and is open from 1 to 7 p.m. Photography is by Choi Cheol-lim.
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