Yoo Yeonhong Solo Exhibition, 'Light Color Becomes Flower Color'... Beautiful Nature and the Cycle of Life

[Asia Economy (Seoul) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] The first solo exhibition of artist Yoo Yeon-hong, who is attracting attention in the art world, will be held at the Topo House Gallery in Insadong, Seoul, from the 19th to the 25th of next month.

This exhibition, under the theme "Light Color (色) Becomes Flower Color (色)," will showcase about 20 figurative paintings featuring common subjects from everyday life such as pine trees, flowers, and pine cones.

Stroll, Oil on canvas, 130.3cm x 162.2cm, 2020

Yoo Yeon-hong, a graduate of the Painting Department at Hongik University, has been working with nature as a motif, representing primal life. Originally from Naejangsan in Jeongeup, Jeonbuk, the artist possesses an exceptional ability to capture the aesthetic beauty of moments by transforming the intangible energy of light and color into tangible energy in reality.

Therefore, the pine trees, flowers, and pine cone series in his works are not merely paintings created with brush and paint. Rather, they are nature (自然) depicted through the resonance of a clear and even transparent soul. The resonance that touches the soul became brushstrokes and was colored with paint.

The boy in his childhood was lonely. He wanted comfort and to be loved. Born as the eighth of nine siblings in a poor farming family, he was a child without presence. At that time, a single pencil and a sketchbook became tools to nurture his dreams. Naejangsan and the fields, like a mother’s embrace, became the boy’s exclusive studio. Every moment as he ran through the wind, the scenery that caught his eyes became paintings, and it was a period when he fully experienced the mystery and life given by nature.

The painting he started secretly against his parents’ opposition became his everything and his profession. The artist’s positive life formula, "Poverty is uncomfortable but not a reason for poor study," also stems from his childhood experiences nurtured in nature.

The artist’s works are characterized by capturing the beauty of moments in nature filled with soft sunlight and vivid vitality. The vivid sensations felt in the works are enhanced not only by realistic representation but also by panoramic composition. Delicate depictions capture the balance between light and subject in exquisite landscapes.

In this exhibition, visitors can experience the artist’s grand pine forest works, lyrical flower paintings, and the newly introduced pine cone series this year through the themes of , , and . Realistic landscapes featuring pine forests, rapeseed flowers, and cherry blossoms have been subjects he has newly portrayed on canvas since the early 2000s.

Travel, oil on canvas, 40.9cm x 53cm, 2021

His works transcend the boundaries between traditional landscape painting and realism. His style coexists with the elegance of classical scholar-painters and the simplicity and roughness felt in folk painters. Thus, his paintings embody "goodness and simplicity."

Pine trees are a common species around us. However, the greenness and steadfastness of the pine trees in his canvases become beings that seem to always protect us by our side. The series was intended to express trees like people who get along well with anyone in the world.

Flowers represent the peak moment. Beautiful flowers that bloom competitively in spring and summer are the fragrant moments of my youth. However, it is said that humans feel the greatest loneliness when flowers are in full bloom. The artist’s captures the peak moment of flowers in full bloom, which may be the loneliest and most solitary moment.

Pine cones are the seed storage of pine trees. They are symbols of silence that drop seeds to sprout in the following spring. The work is filled with the laws of life’s circulation and the natural order.

Walk, oil on canvas, 91cm x 233cm, 2015

Through this exhibition, the artist has prepared a time to reflect on "myself" within life and nature using a simple aesthetic language and images. If busy modern people gift themselves even a brief moment of time, they will be able to feel at least a little of the soul’s resonance that the artist offers. Simply viewing the paintings is already half the healing.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.