Rimi Yang is an ethnic Korean who was born and raised in Osaka, Japan. In 1986 she moved to the Ohio where she studied at Bowling Green University and then in 1991 to Los Angeles where she studied at California State University and the Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Art, the Otis Collegeof Art and Design and spent a summer in Florence, Italy, studying at the Florence Academy of Art. She has lived and worked near the ocean in Santa Monica since 1991.
Celebrating the chaotic emotional duality that exists in life in her art, Rimi Yang revels in the confusion mankind creates in its attempt to order the un-orderable and to explain the unexplainable. Adhering to Joseph Campbell’s dictum that the best things in life are those you cannot explain her paintings are intuitive, instinctive, balancing acts of contrasts.
Building up and tearing down of surfaces and images searching for reason where none exists, for that imaginary perfect world of equilibrium on each canvas. Creating a new language with each work, using each as a stepping stone to the next she is dedicated to making each painting better than her last. That Yang’s work is universal in spirit yet personally intimate is evident upon viewing the non-deconstructed whole.
Intensely curious about both Eastern and Western art history, Yang reveals new meaning by deconstructing iconic images of each culture, borrowing images from masterpieces; flower paintings by Fantin-Latour, Japanese woodblock images of Geisha by Eizan, portraits of madams by Ingres. At the same time, Yang tries to cultivate new methods of paintings by mixing up different techniques from various painting styles, escorting viewers down the path to Rimi’s unique and mysterious wonderland.
Yang has exhibited in New York, California, Florida, Georgia, and Ohio in the United States, Toronto, British Columbia and Newfoundland in Canada and more recently London and Copenhagen.
CHRONOLOGY
Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2009
Joanne Artman Gallery , Laguna Beach, CA
Cella Gallery, North Hollywood, CA
2008
B&K Projects, Copenhagen, Denmark
Stricoff Fine Art, New York, NY
Winsor Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2007
Stricoff Fine Art, New York, NY
Lowe gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2006
Lowe Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2005
Art Amo Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
Selected Group Exhibition / Art Fairs
2009
Art in Review at Cella Gally, North Hollywood, CA
Moura Starr at Pacific Design Center
Grand Opening Group Show at Skotia Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
AAF Bristol
Glasgow Art Fair
AAF London
2008
Art London
Toronto International Art Fair
Affordable Art Fair, Amsterdam, Holland
Edinburgh Art Fair
'Curious and Curiouser' Galleri Rebecca Kormind, Copenhagen, Denmark
“Made in the USA” @ Annual LA Brewery Opening, LA, CA
Affordable Art Fair, New York, NY
2007
Richmond Hill Gallery, Surrey, England
James Baird Gallery, Pouch Cove, NL
Affordable Art Fair New York, NY
Stricoff Fine Art, New York, NY
Art Miami, Miami, FL
VISIONI DELL’UMANITÀ, Roma, Italy
Winsor Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
2006
Stricoff Fine Art, New York, NY
Affordable Art Fair New York, NY
Winsor Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2005
Stricoff Fine Art, New York, NY
Toronto International Art Fair, Toronot, BC
Winsor Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
Art Amo Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
Solaris Gallery, West Hollywood, CA
Studio18LA, West Hollywood, CA
2004
Don O’Melveny Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Lankershim Art Gallery, North Hollywood, CA
Wet Paint at Studio 3 Art & Design Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1997
‘Aztlan and Beyond’, The Riverside Art Museum, Riverside, CA
1988
37th Annual Undergraduate Art Exhibition, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH
1987
36TH Annual Undergraduate Art Exhibition, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH
EDUCATION
2004
Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Art, Los Angeles, CA
2004
Otis College of Art & Design, Los Angeles, CA
2003
The Florence Academy of Art, Florence, Italy (Summer)
1991
California State University, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
1987
Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH
Awards
2007
Residency At Pouch Cover Foundation, Canada in July and August, 2007
1988
Marietta Kirschner Wigg Print Award, 36th Annual Undergraduate Art Exhibition, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH
First Place in Prints, 36th Annual Undergraduate Art Exhibition, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH
Selected Reviews and Publications
Anon, Mid American Review (cover illustration) VIII, no. 1, Fall 1987.
Han, Stephanie, “The Difference,” Kyoto Journal, Fall 2002.
Hiroyuki, Itsuki, “The Sunset-Colored Simca,” Kyoto Journal, Winter 2001.
McCarthy, Ralph F., "Rue & Me," Kyoto Journal, 2005
Tong, Su, "How the Ceremony Ends," Kyoto Journal, 2006
Cozy, David, "Donald Richie, Modernist - Tokyo Nights," Kyoto Journal, 2006
Metropolitan Home, May, 2006
Chowdhury, Manosh, "Crow Home," Kyoto Journal, 2006
Thompson, Holly, "Radio Day," Kyoto Journal, 2007 No. 68
Traditional Homes, April, 2008
