Yoo Geun-Taek

Growing Room

Yoo Geun-Taek (b. 1965, Asan, Korea, lives and works in Seoul) is a significant figure in contemporary Korean painting. He received his B.F.A and M.F.A from the School of Fine Arts at Hongik University, Seoul, in 1988. Since the 1990's Yoo has been exploring the redefinition of visual narratives through poetic images composed of dense and repetitive elements. Derived from observation and the influence of the Dansaekhwa art movement that swept the Korean painting field of the 70s and 80s, Yoo’s work is energetic, hypnotic, sensual and meditative.

In his process, Yoo uses traditional Korean materials like hanji (mulberry paper), oyster shell powder and inks to create distinctive compositions built of layers upon layers. He also appropriates traditional techniques like broken ink (pailk, 破墨) and ink diffusion (seonyeom, 渲染), imbuing his works with “a new space of accumulated time” as he calls it. Interpreting Korean contemporary history and the future of Korean painting, the power of Yoo’s work resides in his exceptional capability for describing his concerns objectively though his materials, perception and his physical performativity. Thus, creating works that appear to merge the past, the present, and the future.

Yoo has been the subject of several exhibitions at prominent institutions worldwide, and his work has been incorporated in a number of important permanent collections including the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Korea, SOMA Seoul Olympic Museum of Art, Jeju Museum of Art, Chengdu Contemporary Art Museum (China), Busan Museum of Art, Daejeon Museum of Art, Leeum Museum of Art and White Rabbit Collection in Australia, among others.

Artists: Yoo Geun-Taek

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