
Jungyul Yu (b. Busan, South Korea) holds a B.A. in Studio Art from Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio and an M.F.A. in Studio Art from Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida. She has worked as a translator of Korean poetry and art criticism from Korean into English. She co-translated a book entitled Three Poets of Modern Korea (Sarabande Books) and translated 2002 International Flag Art Festival, a catalogue of the Flag Art Festival held in conjunction with the 2002 FIFA World Cup.
She has participated in several group shows in the United States and has had solo exhibitions in Busan, South Korea and Tallahassee, Florida. She recently received a 2009 Community Arts Assistance Program (CAAP) grant sponsored by the City of Chicago and the grand prize at the Modern Wing Photo Contest sponsored by The Art Institute of Chicago and NBC5. She is currently painting with oil and mixed media and photographing with Nikon manual and DSLR cameras, continuing her passion for photography that she developed while at Kenyon College.
Painting is, for me, a visualized record of personal times and spaces representing scenes among many still shots that are scattered in my conscious and subconscious realms. Sometimes, these visual journals portray simple landscapes and landscape-like images in different seasons. Sometimes, they represent abstract images, including the status of my mind in moments that I encounter in dreams and daydreams and while experiencing happiness and unfulfilled desire.
I often simplify or stylize subject matters, representational or abstract. On my pictorial surface, occasionally used objects such as human hair, dried flower petals and textured paper provide a sense of permanence through fossilization. Some writings and dates are composed with the visual elements. Korean (my native language) and English (my adopted language) are occasionally presented in simple forms: few words, short sentences, or fragments of sentences. Dates appearingg on the paintings mark birthdays and commemorative days throughout my past and present.
Kansas City, USA
studio.j.yu@gmail.com
jungyul@jungyulyu.com