Paek Yunzo

백윤조 Paek Yunzo, Departure, 138 x 190.2 cm, oil on canvas, 2024

Gallery Joeun is pleased to present the solo exhibition “Every Little Step” by Paek Yunzo (b. 1980) from February 29 to March 30, 2024. Through the theme of “walking”, the artist expresses the positivity of life and the preciousness of everyday life in her own pleasant and rhythmic artistic language.

For the artist who said, “The pain that was once in my body and mind disappeared when I walked”, walking was an opportunity to feel alive and start working. Just as walking empties complex thoughts, Paek Yunzo does not try to fill things in her work. Figures, simply expressed with minimal lines and bright colors, walk toward an unknown place alone or in groups against a monochromic background. The dynamism and healthy cheerfulness of the figures, expressed with straight, refreshing lines, are emphasized by gentle but refined strokes.

백윤조 Paek Yunzo, Wait, 133 x 94 cm, oil on canvas, 2024

Alongside the figures, which are boldly and clearly depicted, small everyday objects and animals can be seen. Figures carrying dogs, cats, birds, or dolls move around in the work. As the title “Thief” suggests, the scene of someone stealing everyday treasures reminds the viewer of essential innocence that is forgotten over time. The actions of objects or animals often become the titles of works such as ‘Wait’ and ‘Just One Bite’, and with works such as ‘Free Rider’, the artist shows that little animals can only survive with the full attention and consideration of humans, and expresses her affection for accompanied animals in a humorous way. In the artist’s works, little jokes about things that happen unintentionally and cynical but stubborn humor are paradoxically replaced by a warm perspective and a positive attitude toward daily life.

백윤조 Paek Yunzo, Thief, 116.8 x 91 cm, oil on canvas, 2024

The artist has no particular model and does not draw after contemplation. When images from everyday life suddenly come to her mind, she draws them spontaneously and impulsively and then transfers these images to the canvas. In the process, the specific elements of the subject, even if they are depicted in figurative painting, are condensed and refined, taking on a sensual and abstract form through her own artistic language. The purpose and motivation of the wanderers are left entirely to the viewer’s imagination. Art critic Hong Kyoung-Han said that Paek Yunzo’s work, which depicts the lives of people living an ordinary daily life with the artist’s own grammar, “although expressed with the limitations of figuration, creates empathy and resonance through the formality of flatness,” adding, “It stimulates the imagination and leaves room for interpretation for the viewer and is open so that others, not just me, can understand it in their own way.”

백윤조 Paek Yunzo, ‘Find Ya’ (Face series), 41 x 32 cm, oil on canvas, 2024

The exhibition includes the large-format work ‘Departure’, showing people leaving the airport for a new place, the somewhat coy ‘Milk Cartons’, in which a man and a woman carry retro-style milk cartons on a date; and ‘Ugly Car’, in which three friends hold a toy car from their childhood and go for a noisy walk. The artist presents 26 of her latest works, offering the viewer an aesthetic experience in which the ordinariness of life is replaced by a special scene full of humor and positivity.

After graduating with a master’s degree in painting from Dongduk Women’s University, the artist has actively pursued her work and held a series of solo exhibitions at Pyo Gallery, Azulejo Gallery, Jean Design Art, and Gallery Joeun. Through her participation in leading art fairs, such as Art Paris, Art Miami, and Kiaf Seoul, she is actively making a name for herself in the art world.

Gallery Joeun
3, Itaewon-ro 55 ga-gil, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea
+82-2-790-5889

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