yoo yong sang_2012_exhibite

Yoo yong sang

The artist’s gaze to modern society expressed with wine

Artist Yong-sang Yoo’s recent work seems to have some changes in its scale and his way of thinking on materials which he is handling. In his early

days, he mainly used metaphorical expressions for various circumstances where a human being exists with symbolical images such as foam of drinks

in a paper cup or an empty or a half-full glass of wine. He made momentary love expressed by a paper cup in a context of their disposability and an

empty or a half-full glass of wine was used to draw meditative stories on human’s possession.

In recent work, however, he sometimes draws a wine cellar in a winery or a collection of wine bottles with vivid labels of premium wine and he also

presents an unusually small wine bottle compared to size of a wine glass. He already clarifies that he makes such choices to reflect a critical view on

modern society where one’s class or position is determined by superficial markers like size or labels of wine, for example.

It can reveal structural contradictions in human society that modern society which is believed to be fully civilized still has hierarchical aspects just like

feudal society. However, it is very interesting to make antithetical elements collide and to intensify the precariousness in that he selects images like

appearances or labels which baldly indicate the modern capitalist world and overlaps them with wine of sweet scent and flavor in which one would

be willing to be lost.

The artist focuses on wine which people unconsciously consume and finds connections between his traces of thoughts which he has obtained in this

society through diverse experience and relations of wine glasses or bottles. He expands the similarity between them with huge images and makes

story structure with formative expressions which is more powerful than with verbal ones. It should be noted that the artist tries to search for a powerful

way to make his thought deeply echoed.

In addition to that, it is impressive that the artist shows us the power of painting in clearly inspecting a certain thought and he also indicates that

painting itself can be a significant medium for humans’ will of independent recognition to existing objects.

From this point of view, uniqueness in his work not only realistically describes appearances of objects that are easily missed by appreciators in their

daily lives but also exposes aspects of human society both in symbolical and explicit ways where objects are confronted with by characteristically

grasping circumstances where objects face each other. Therefore, his work can be evaluated to perform creative work in questioning essence and

roles of arts in that it provides views and ways of thinking which enable to find opportunities for mature introspection as a human being with a serious

view to society.

2012. 10. 27

Lee, Seung-hoon, Cyart institute

Viewing the World beyond the Hyper-Real Illusion

Yoo Yong-sang is known as an artist with excellent depictive skills, capable of painting wine in a glass, or even the foam of a drink in a paper cup,

hyper-realistically. But when we see his use of characteristic titles with certain sentiment of philosophy, such as “Love of a Moment,” “The Chosen

One”or “Non-Possession,” for his works of daily objects like wine glasses or paper cups, it is clear that he is not only interested in simply repre-

senting and depicting objects. While the trends of hyper-realism that took place in the late 1960s in the United States tried to suppress subjectivity to-

wards the world of daily life, which had become too trite, and aimed to see objects with an neutral and objective perspective like that of a camera, artist

Yoo Yong-sang, who has worked based on Eastern thought, seems to be examining objects from theopposite side and making this into a discourse.

The reason the artist creates dramatic situations in the picture-plane and an illusionary visual device that enables spectators to concentrate on that

situation is because he wants to make a visual passage to share his subjective experiences taking place in his mind, and has the intension to invite

spectators’ eyes to this event. The artist is using hyper-real illusions in a linguistic way that enables viewers to read the artist’s inner sentiments

and philosophical agonies on the objects according to how they are placed or situated. The visual devices he uses such as filling, emptying, trem-

bling and stopping appear also to serve the purpose of demonstrating how the symbolic language system of the inner world contains human agonies

appropriately and implicatively.

Thus, his formative works are not simply to represent realistic objects, but can be read as having the intention of providing clues on the deep stories

that originate within the artist himself.

If we look closely at the paintings of empty glasses, trembling glasses, and gradually emptied or single filled glasses, we can realize that they create

spaces of dramatic effect, like a scene or stage of tragic or comic theater, and through this the artist is symbolizing a cross-section of the human

world in an extremely simple and vivid way.

In a way, they look like a stage from which all the actors have vanished, replaced by wine glasses. The sight created by the massively magnified

objects is not just still life paintings,but a gigantic epic spectacle, which transformed the views of the human inner world, travelling between desire,

passion, infinity or extremes, into a massive visual image.

Hence, having discovered a perspective to see the world like a vortex of endless desire and remorse between the instant and eternity experienced

by humans within the micro-structures called wine glasses and paper cups, the artistintended to engage in a sincere conversation about a discourse

concerning the inner world of humans, by intersecting such perspective with gigantic illusions and the context of the dramatically produced situation,

and by visualizing this through hyper-real expression.2011. 11. 10

Lee, Seung-hoon, Cyart institute

Good evening GEORG MULLER 145.5 cm X 194.0cm Oil on canvas 2012

Contemporary Man 227.3 X 182.0cm Oil on canvas 2012

Good evening - The Last Super 116.7X80.3cm oil on canvas 2012

Contemporary Man - The Chosen person 227.3 X 182.0cm Oil on canvas 2012

Good evening - DANIEL 116.7X80.3cm oil on canvas 2012

Good evening 116.7 X 80.3cm oil on canvas 2012

The Chosen person 227.3x145.5cm Oil on canvas 2011

The Chosen person 162x97cm Oil on canvas 2012

The Chosen person 116.7 x 72.7cm Oil on canvas 2012The Chosen person 162.2 x 97.0cm Oil on canvas 2011

Good Evening 116.7 x 91.0 cm Oil on canvas 2012

Good evening - Nonpossession 145.5 x 97.0cm Oil on canvas 2011

Good Evening 91.0x 65.1cm x 3EA Oil on canvas 2009

Good evening 145.5x97.0 Oil on canvas 2012

Good evening - Nonpossession 100.0 x 72.7cm x 3EA Oil on canvas

Good evening - Nonpossession 116.7 x 72.7cm x 5EA Oil on canvas 2008

A paper Cup - Instant Love

Yoo yong sang

1973, Born In Namwon, Jeonbuk, Korea Graduated from Painting, Collge of Fine Arts, Hongik University, Seoul, Korea.(B.F.A / M.F.A) Graduated from Painting, Collge of Fine Arts, Jeonbuk University, Jeonnju, Korea, (B.F.A)

Solo Exhibition 2003 Invitation, KEPCO Art Center, Seoul 2004 Hongik Art Gallery, Seoul 2005 Invitation to the Art Festival of Korean Young Artists for the Peaceful Reunification, Gallery Danwon, Ansan, Korea 2006 Invitation, AKA Seoul Gallery, Seoul &Uiwang Arts Center, Uiwang, Korea) 2007 Seo-ho Art Gallery, Seoul 2008 Insa Art Festival (InsaGallery, Seoul) GOLDEN EYES ART FAIR 2008 (COXE, Seoul) 2011 Invitation, Pink Gallery, Seoul Invitation, Gallery Euro, Seoul 2012 Invitation, Gallery Rose, Seoul Invitation, Gallery Byusyong deubaeng, Seoul Invitation, Galerie Winter GmbH, Germany

Group Exhibition2012 Spring Fair Exhibition (Gallery Tsubaki/ Tokyo)

Grand Cru Wine Art Exhibition (Daejeon Trade Fair/ Daejeon) Gallery wine tour (Guesthouse Topaz Hall, Hotel Shilla/ Seoul ) Taste of country Exhibition (Yangpyeong Museum of Art/ Seoul) Heyri Art Road (Gallery Touch Art/ Seoul) Houses Memory Exhibition (Gallery sijac/ Seoul) Germany, Japan, Korea Wine & Art (Hill State Gallery/ Seoul) Their Story in Realism (soohoh Gallery/ Seoul) The psychology of wine Exhibition (Gail art Museum/ Seoul)

Awards 2010 Republic of Korea Youth Award. 2001~2002 A special prize at the 21th and 20th Korea National grand Art Exhibition(National Museum of Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, Korea) 2002~2003 “Grand Prize” at the Dan won grand Art exhibition (Gallery, Danwon, Ansan, Korea) 1999~1998 A Special Prize at the Jeonbuk grand Art Exhibition (Jeonbuk Fine Art, Jeonju, Korea) 1996~1998 “Grand Prize” at the Gwangju Grand Art Exhibition (Gwangju Art Center, Gwangju, Korea) 1996~1998 A Special Prize at the Cunhan Grand Art Exhibition (Cunhan Art Center, Namwon, Korea)

Membership Fine Art Associasion & Origin Group.Morak Contemporary Art Creators Woori-Dongne Contemporary Art Association Invitee to Danwon Arts Festival Ggalmak(slope) Climbers Gun-Gi Exhibition, Founding member to House - Culture & Art Power Station

Collections:Seoul National Museum Art Bank 2005, 2007, 2010, Tomato Savings Bank,Samsung Semiconductor, Samsung Culture Center, Embassy of the Republicof Portugal, Embassy of the Republic of Costa Rica, Embassy of the Republicof Hungary.

Address 402 (Bill Central Pine), 770-10, Jung-dong, Wonmi-gu, Bucheon-si, Gyeonggi-do, KoreaMobile :82-10- 5625 - 6298 S N S : facebook.com/100001374320952blog : http://blog.naver.com/yong30sE-mail: [email protected]

Copyrightⓒ 2012 by YOO, YONG SANG All right reserved.