Artist’s Statement

I recognize that resilience of synthetic substance is alluring in its appearance, especially when coupled with vibrant colors and transparency, but its synthetic make up is at odds with nature. The allure of synthetic materiality in my work is close to that of confectionaries and shiny plastic items that have inundated our culture. This connection between the work and consumer goods reflects my interest in consumption as a strategy to assuage urban anxiety. My work addresses the relationship between this anxiety and the speed in which information and signals travel through space. 

The convergence reflects my envisage of contemporary reality—complex and fraught with chaotic activity and information overflow—often invisible yet bounded by a sense of physical order. To convey spontaneous, brisk movements but retain replete density of signals, I employ a painstaking process that erects a facade of ease that is characterized by screen-printing or fast-moving gestural strokes. First, I render my idea by digitally editing many images that I've compiled from popular media, concepts I've drawn, and man-made structures I've photographed. Then I abstract each form's speed by distorting the original images through printing at various levels of low-resolution to enlarge the fine dots that inform its direction and structure. I then mix my own formulas of acrylic paint to amplify the fluidity and to evoke a glossy, plastic, and consumer packaged-goods feel. Finally, with tiny wrist gestures, I squeeze vividly colored half-tone dots from plastic bottles to apply perceptibly tactile layers upon layers filled with dynamic movement of abstract shapes, often set against vestiges of urban structures. 

The urban setting has been a consummate space to express my view of chaotic reality guided by perspectival order and directional movements, and emphasizes the relationship between urban anxiety and the speed and overflow of invisible information. My unique work process and focus on synthetic quality—amplified at the large-scale—imbue a visceral sense of cursory ease and spontaneity from a distance, yet at closer view, captures the immense abstraction of speed, density, and signal that traverse through space and time. 

Artist’s Links

artist’s website: www.yoonlee.info    

gallery links: http://www.pierogi2000.com/artists/yoon-lee/