Where Fragments Linger by the Sea, 2026 – Jeewi Lee x Phillip C. Reiner

A 3d printed sand sculpture sits on a wooden crate in a gallery with concrete walls and stairs.

"Where Fragments Linger by the Sea" is the first institutional exhibition of Lee's sand works. The show presents sculptures, screenprints, and a video work. Each piece traces back to a single grain of sand captured by nano-CT scanning. The grains come from coastal locations across six continents: Taean-Bando in Korea, New York and Connecticut in the USA, the Alentejo in Portugal, Mallorca in Spain, Dakar in Senegal, and Wilhelmshaven in Germany. At this exhibition, new works appear from the Nordsee region, including a large sculpture from a grain collected at the Wilhelmshavener Südstrand.

The screenprints isolate single DICOM cross-sections from the scan data, bypassing the three-dimensional reconstruction used for the sculptures. Sections from Stromboli and Ghana present mineral density as grayscale image at approximately 1000 times the grain's actual size. A layer of sand from each grain's origin sits on the print surface. Physical material and scanned data share the same plane. The video work applies colorized nano-CT imaging to the Wilhelmshaven grain, rendering internal density structures as animated volumetric data.

Sand functions as artistic medium and as global resource. Annual consumption approaches 50 billion tons for construction, glass, microchips, and filtration. Lee traces material memory through detritus; Reiner develops geometric structures within natural forms. The collaboration uses precision imaging to expose what each grain carries from its formation and transport history.

A framed screenprint hangs on a concrete wall near a staircase with glass railings.
A porous 3d printed sand sculpture sits on a wooden crate in a gallery with screen prints on the wall.
A 3d printed sand sculpture sphere sits on a wooden crate in a gallery.
A 3d printed sand sculpture rests on a wooden crate in a gallery with screen prints on the walls.
Two framed screen prints with abstract forms hang on a white brick wall.
3D printed sand sculptures sit on wooden crates in a gallery with white brick walls.
3d printed sand sculptures sit on a wooden crate and glass panel in a concrete room.
A video projection of a sand grain on a screen sits between 3d printed sand sculptures.

Photography: 2026 Jeewi Lee x Phillip C. Reiner
https://jeewi.de
https://www.kunsthalle-wilhelmshaven.de/en/exhibitions/jeewi-lee

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