Guimi You
Photo: courtesy of the artist
Guimi You
South Korea born 1985, worked in the United States 2014–22
Level 2
NGV International
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PROJECT
Korean artist Guimi You creates oil paintings that present a blurring of elements from the so-called real world connected with an imagined city. She draws inspiration from the natural world, explaining: ‘Nature is fluid and constantly evolving, so I don’t believe there is a need to portray them as static and immovable. As a result, this perception of nature has led me to develop a style of painting that may appear dream-like to the viewer’. Trained in traditional Korean portraiture, You combines this to create a kind of magical realism, where time and place are unplaceable. The couple standing on the bridge suggests an underlying narrative that, like her rendering of these figures, is hazy and open-ended.
ABOUT
Painting with soft, pale tones, Guimi You depicts nostalgic scenes celebrating parenthood, domestic life and the everyday. Guimi You received an MA in painting from the Royal College of Art, London, in 2014, and holds a BFA and an MFA in Korean portraiture and landscape art (San-su hwa) from Seoul National University, Korea. Her work is in the public collections of the Yuz Museum in Shanghai, the Seoul National University Museum of Art; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (ICA); Columbus Museum of Art; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; and the College of Fine Arts, Seoul National University.
Purchased with funds donated by an anonymous donor, 2023