Yoon Joo

Yoon Joo (b. 1962) is a Korean artist currently based in Paju, South Korea. He studied at Hong Ik University, Seoul, majoring in Painting. Joo’s work has been exhibited internationally, including the group show Memory for a Star in Arnhem, Netherlands.

“The first material I found that I could paint on besides the normal canvas was a bedsheet. A bedsheet you can easily get with light colours and even with patterns looked ideal for me to work on. I started to perceive the traces of time along with the feelings slowly permeated, engraved on the fabric.

A fabric piece which already has its own story attracted me more than a white canvas that I should start from nothing. I was more interested in making narratives through the faded traces of lives and histories, so to speak. And then my interest in 'used fabric' gradually gave way to 'used clothes'. Used clothes - items not only worn on the body but items as evidence of our 'arduous life' in my way of definition. Then I started to collect 'used clothing' and cut the clothes into small pieces. I sewed the fabric pieces together, large enough to cover the whole wall or cover a large structure. I didn't know exactly what I really wanted to realize by making such a large fabric piece, but 'why' is not important. The artist's intentions sometimes are revealed after years, after the work was created”.

Selected solo exhibitions include: Artreon Gallery, Seoul (2021); The Berlin Museum, Seoul (2019); Painting No.1, Gallery 1707 (2018); Let me see your Garden, Gallery Guha (2017); Precipitation, Liz Gallery (2006).

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