Youjin Yi at Kunst am Isartor
"Backgrounds" on handmade paperMunich, 7 June 2011 – The artist Youjin Yi is putting on display her graphical work, drawings and paintings for the opening of the current exhibition. In cooperation with Kunst am Isartor (Art at the Isartor), WTS again provides facilities for art. The works can be viewed until 29 July 2011.
Surprises are in store at Youjin Yi's exhibition entitled "Backgrounds", for which she uses painting, graphics and drawing mostly on handmade paper. The artist takes up elements of traditional Korean painting and draws comparisons with European art.
Youjin Yi, born in Kangnung (South Korea) in 1980, studied traditional Korean painting at Sejong University in Seoul. Unlike classic European painting, which perfected the technique of realistic representation and the play of colours, Korean painting places greater emphasis on creating mood and atmosphere. Landscapes with striking mountains and waterfalls are the most popular motifs. Naturalistic works also depict flowers, birds and tigers. Painting is usually done with ink on paper or silk.
Youjin Yi came to Germany in 2003, seeking to deepen and broaden her artistic skills, and applied for a place at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. She studied painting and graphics under Professor Günther Förg, who held his first solo exhibition in 1980 at the Rüdiger Schöttle Gallery in Munich. In his work as a painter, sculptor and photo-artist, he has dealt with geometrical structures – from natural landscapes to architectural constructions. Youjin Yi is a master-class student of Professor Förg and graduated this year.
In addition to her painting works, the artist also produces numerous graphics and drawings. Everyday subjects and circumstances are recurring themes in her work. Sometimes she sketches them on paper with delicate strokes, sometimes she puts them on paper in two dimensions and in vibrant colours. Paper is a key element of her work. The consistency of the material forms a kind of basis that stimulates her again and again to work actively with it, as a challenge and a test. Yi also engages with spatial structures, beginning with the surface consistency of paper that is mostly handmade. Hatching and areas of colour alternate and are playfully and sensually put into place. Just as her pictures change technically between painting and drawing, the subjects oscillate between the atmospheric mood of her Asian roots and the banal subjects of the modern Western world.
The figures in her pictures often remain shadowy, like beings from another world, as they stride through seemingly hilly landscapes, with long hair blowing in the wind and only wearing a kind of helmet. Or when octopus-like figures seek the expanse of the ocean in what look like deep-sea-scapes.
In small yet superb works, the artist also takes an ironic look at the "important" subjects of everyday life, such as "rain", "cupboard" and "skipping rope", and applies them to paper in resplendent colours.
