Exhibition “Dominik Lejman: Phantome” in Berlin

Works by Polish artist Dominik Lejman will be presented from 10 January to 15 February 2026 at St. Matthew’s Church in Berlin as part of the solo exhibition “Dominik Lejman: Phantome”. The exhibition will feature approximately 20 works in which painted worlds come alive through video projections, creating an ephemeral experience of being haunted by phantoms and spectres. The presentation explores the boundaries between the visible and the invisible and raises questions about human presence in time and space. The exhibition is supported by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute.

“Phantome” by the Polish artist at Kulturforum Berlin – projections, video paintings, and phantoms

For three decades, Polish artist Dominik Lejman has been hunting ghosts. His art, presented worldwide, consists of overlaying video projections onto abstract paintings. Painted worlds are briefly inhabited by spectres and phantoms. It is an art of unease: of orientation, confinement, and collapse. The artist’s practice has an obsessive character; its aesthetics follow the movement of human existence and its direction, balancing doubt, humour, and despair. This time, Lejman’s works will be shown in the German capital, at St. Matthew’s Church, in the exhibition “Dominik Lejman: Phantome”.

Curated by Hubertus von Amelunxen, the exhibition at Berlin’s Kulturforum presents around 20 works by Dominik Lejman created between 1995 and 2025. These are primarily video paintings and large-scale projection installations in which the artist balances between narrative and its disappearance, between the static and the moving image. In a distinctive way, the works integrate content, media transmission, and aesthetics, posing questions about responsibility for one’s own presence in time and about possibilities of expression within the conditions of contemporary visual reality.

The work of Dominik Lejman: painting, video media, and a dialogue between content and form

Dominik Lejman studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk and at the Royal College of Art in London. As a representative of a generation actively engaged in the political transformations of Eastern Europe, he gained international recognition for his innovative approach to painting. He is one of the most recognisable Polish artists working at the intersection of painting and video media and his practice is characterised by a consistent dialogue between content, medium, and aesthetics. His works have been shown, among others, in the exhibition “After the Wall: Art and Culture in Post-Communist Europe”, at the Venice Architecture Biennale, at Fondazione Prada, and at Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg. Lejman’s works are held in renowned public and private collections, including the Museum of Art in Łódź, Kunsthalle Bremen, and the Cleveland Clinic collection.

The exhibition “Phantome” in Berlin takes place during the Epiphany period – a time of particular significance in the Christian tradition, associated with the idea of the manifestation of the sacred in the world. This context reinforces the interpretation of Lejman’s works, in which figures seem to fall outside the linearity of time, functioning as phantoms – figures that do not fully belong to any single era, ambiguous, recurring, and impermanent. Viewing these images within a church building becomes for the audience a form of haunting, in which the ambivalence of the visible and the invisible is revealed.

Programme of accompanying events for the exhibition “Phantome” in Germany

The exhibition is accompanied by a programme of performative and musical events, including talks, performances, and concerts with invited international artists and curators.

• 13 January 2026, 7:00 pm – “Phantoms” – Ulrich Loock, Anda Rottenberg and Hannes Langbein in conversation with Dominik Lejman; moderated by Hubertus v. Amelunxen.

• 20 January 2026, 7:00 pm – “Schleier” – a performance by Argentine choreographer Maria Colusi, exploring the fragile boundary between visible and invisible forces – a liminal space in which matter becomes spirit, sound turns into silence and the body dissolves into air.

• 27 January 2026, 7:00 pm – “The Chess Player” – readings of poetry and prose by Howard Altman and Zbigniew Herbert, featuring Howard Altman, Michael Krüger and others.

• 3 February 2026, 7:00 pm – “Ubu” – a performance by Krzysztof “Leon” Dziemaszkiewicz, combining opposites and posing questions about the boundaries between animality and humanity.

• 10 February 2026, 7:00 pm – “The Sound of Ghosts” – a concert by jazz musician and composer Mikołaj Trzaska.

Exhibition: “Dominik Lejman: Phantome” – Practical information

• Dates: 10 January – 15 February 2026

• Venue: St. Matthäus Church, Kulturforum Berlin, Matthäikirchplatz, Berlin

• Opening hours: Tuesday – Sunday, 11:00 am – 6:00 pm

• Admission: Free

• More information: https://stiftung-stmatthaeus.de/ausstellungen/phantome/#

• The exhibition is realised with the support of Peter Gage Morris, the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, the University of the Arts in Poznań (UAP), the Polish–German Cooperation Foundation, and the Polish Institute in Berlin.