featured artists
the beauty of the void
Dream a poetic dream with of artist, Youjin Yi.
Youjin Yi occupies a space where intimate memories and social forces converge, and Korean spiritual traditions infuse with global revelations. Inspired by pioneers like Nam June Paik and Leiko Ikemura, she appeals to a shared sense of humanity while preserving the essence of her cultural origins. Saturated by the pushes, pulls, and textures of places far and wide, Youjin delves into themes of loneliness, exile, and fate. Influenced by her late mentor, Günther Förg, she has refined a creative practice designed to reconcile inherited sensibilities with acquired cosmopolitan drives.
Youjin reimagines early recollections of vibrant forms in her family’s fruit shop into striking dreamscapes. Her curious paintings such as Tiger Mask and Teiche (Ponds) pay tribute to the poetry of Korean nature, where rugged mountains scale the dimensions of past lives, and bodies of open water contain the mysteries of becoming yet surface.
Youjin paints on hanji paper or canvases laid on the floor, relinquishing herself to immediacy and prioritizing intuition over control. Suddenly, lines pierce unexpected portals into meditative and distinctly in-between terrains, and one-of-a-kind characters pique the viewer’s interest through subtle digs rather than explicit details. Known as the Beauty of the Void, this is a benevolent realm of open ambiguity where cultural nuances and personal particularities coexist, crescendo, and coalesce in performative splendor.
