Jule Korneffel: In Search of Lost Light
Spencer Brownstone Gallery
March 18 – May 2, 2026
Images courtesy of Spencer Brownstone Gallery and Jule Korneffel
Stepping off the street into Spencer Brownstone Gallery last week, I felt an immediate drop in volume, not acoustically, but visually, a certain calmness that’s very noticeable, especially living in New York City, where we don’t get to see the sunrise and sunset as much as the rest of the world. Jule Korneffel’s third solo outing here, In Search of Lost Light, is remarkably quiet, yet it carries a soft, childlike rhythm throughout the show. Utilizing a unique palette of artist-mixed natural pigments, Korneffel captures a sense of hushed wonder. In this new body of work, she shifts her focus away from the twilight of her previous series toward those suspended moments just before dawn—the quiet, liminal space where anything feels possible.
In Search of Lost Light (2025) caught my eye as the most interesting painting in the show, distinguished by its contrast to the weighty quietness of the other pieces. This Dusky painting with smudges and circles of red, blue, green, and purple, to name a few, seems fun and carefree, evoking associations with a soft hummed song early in the dawn, and has a structure kind of like a musical notation, so that the viewer can visually see and read the musical notes. Overall, the piece brings more dynamism to the exhibit, creating a peaceful but somewhat soft, tense atmosphere compared to the rest of the artworks. There is also a mural in the back patio of the gallery where all colors come together to create a grey neutral tone seen in the early-morning skies.
Now, the glow of her previous art pieces is used as an anticipation for the future events leading up to the coming of the daylight for Korneffel. There are quite a few issues to consider when trying to represent this kind of content, but the artist finds a way to make it more sustainable and gives it physical form using natural pigments she mixed herself. In other words, while strolling through the rest of the exhibition space, it becomes clear not only that the viewer is being left with the residue of the pigment but also the very essence of time. In conclusion, the message conveyed through this exhibition has nothing to do with the beautiful sunrise; instead, it refers to the anticipation of the very same.