Soft Embers of Becoming

GALLERY HAYASHI + ART BRIDGE is delighted to present Soft Embers of Becoming, a solo exhibition by Leipzig-based artist Raffael Bader. Marking the artist’s first solo exhibition at the gallery, the show inaugurates a collaboration between GALLERY HAYASHI + ART BRIDGE and Enari Gallery, Amsterdam. The show will be on view from 28th February to 28th March 2026.

In the new body of work, Raffael Bader investigates states of quiet transformation that unfold beneath the visible surface of things. His paintings are guided by the conviction that what is commonly perceived as still, inert, or lifeless is in fact permeated by subtle movement. Rather than depicting moments of extreme rupture or dramatic change, Bader turns toward processes of slow ignition — a latent warmth, comparable to embers resting within wood, already present and patiently unfolding.

Bader approaches painting as a space in which forms remain attentive and porous. Colour, texture, and gesture sometimes come to the fore loudly, and sometimes they recede, remaining vague, they listen, accumulate, and breathe. In these compositions, the elements seem to hover between material presence and inner vitality, suggesting that each form carries within it its own degree of hardness or alertness. Becoming is not staged as a dramatic event, even though there are works that erupt more strongly, but rather as a continuous, gentle persistence.

Soft Embers of Becoming proposes a view of matter as animated and responsive. There is no absolute stillness, no dead matter — only shifting intensities of awareness. In Bader's paintings, life sometimes bursts forth directly, sometimes it glows gently, inviting the viewer to attune themselves to the quiet rhythms that shape existence from within.