Born in Seoul, Korea in 1973, Yoo Junghyun studied printing at Hong-Ik University and started her art career in Germany after studying painting at Germany’s Akademie der bildenden Kunst. She had solo shows in Munich, Berlin, and in Seoul. Currently, she resides and works in Seoul, having exhibitions open both in China and Berlin as well. “Urban Plants”, which opens on November 4th at Johyun Gallery Seoul, will be the artist’s ninth solo show.
The unique textured surface that reminds of a print-making effect, gives a dimension of tactile and senses onto figures and images the artist draws. This distinctive texture, which can be seen as Yoo Junghyun’s characteristic of her works, is a result of endless curiosity and experimental mind towards mediums, exceeding the definition of ‘painting’ of ‘drawing.’ And this kind of creativity has been portrayed like floating shadows or peeling of skins in previous ‘figure’ series. Inside abstract works that will be shown in “Urban Plants” exhibition, they are expressed as exploding smokes, or sometimes as brittle ashes, or as spots that will never be erased. And within them, bright images are born and disappear, with infinite images captured onto the canvas that are repeatedly born and cease to exist. The forms of images are exposed through a process of rubbing, erasing, colliding, and refining of the artist’s memories as they are. Her unique process has led her to gain spotlight as young artist in Germany’s art scene.
In previous exhibitions, Yoo Junghyun depicted the journey in finding a borderline between inside and outside, absence and presence through images of faces appearing like shadows, an ambiguity between lines of form and background through vegetal shapes like flowers and leaves, and a collision between cognition and vision through a two-dimensional pattern; in “Urban Plants”, the colorful shapes that served as background has now become liberated and dismantled. These multi-colors seem to traverse and be squeezed out of ink-colored vegetation. As insects and extraterrestrial plants hide and expose their shapes between gaps and spaces of tissue, the ink-colored spills, which were once plants, have transformed into an abstract territory.
The reason why this basic disparity or juxtaposition that appears in the artist’s paintings cannot be overlooked is because the contrast and consolidation of the dark inner side and colorful outside always remind us of paradoxical situation that can be felt in anyone’s notion—whoever that might be. And this also touches upon fundamental uneasiness and charm that an individual feels towards the world.
In this exhibition, 14 new works that Yoo Junghyun has worked on for the past two years will be displayed. The exhibition will last about a month starting on November 4th to December 11th, which will undoubtedly show formative depths of paintings.
Yoo Junghyun participated in numerous group exhibitions held in Germany’s Alexander Ochs Gallery since 2004, where they are known for their magnificent exhibitions and discovery of talents, and had her solo show in 2006 which led to receiving spotlight from Germany’s art scene. Domestically in Korea, the artist had her solo show in 2007 at Gallery Skape, and opened “Stars & Dark Spills” in 2009 at Johyun Gallery Busan and in 2011 at Johyun Gallery Seoul, “urban plants” will be showed. Yoo Junghyun’s works are collected by Korea’s National Museum of Contemporary Art as well as prominent organizations in China and Germany.
Artist Notes
: crawling, thickly gathering, steaming, a lump that has been fragmented yet again, merged,
Blooming, flourishing, dividing, furtive, frivolous, easily eliminated, yet again, continuously growing
I have a memory that I once came across them somewhere.
Things that had disparate texture and very sturdy exterior, yet, fragile inside.
They divide and create boundaries, exposing every little existencegiving rights to participate.
They are indifferent as if undisciplined towards borderline between value and insignificant, taboo and sympathy, and irrationalities of reality.
In reds and blues, in vulnerable colors, faithful to rounds and points.
Once incity’s summer.I have a memory that Icame across them somewhere.
I have been keeping in memory of different and strange landscapes and unfamiliar feelings for a long very long time.
… outer world surrounding us is one assemblage in a construction called space.
My images are reconstructed through amalgamation and dismantling of overlaps and repetitions, losing object’s rational order, becoming affluent, and lifted up. It is not deconstructing characteristics, but like Kronos and his black arrows, it is a moment of tension created when state of equilibrium is reached, calling a halt to any movement.
- Yoo Junghyun 2011
