BIO

Areum Yang (b. 1994 Seoul, South Korea) graduated from Hongik University, Seoul, South Korea in 2017 and from the Hunter MFA program, New York, NY in 2021. She has undertaken residency at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. She had her solo show at Derek Eller Gallery and has been included in group shows; Hauser & Wirth, New York, NY and Margot Samel, Mamoth, London. Yang was selected as the winner of the Silver Award for AHL T&W Foundation Contemporary Visual Art Awards. Her work has been selected for print publication in Art Maze Magazine edition 23, Friend of Artists volume 15.

Through a conscious breakdown caused by environmental turmoil, her work allowed her to have an unconscious response to an automatic awareness of strategy. This led her visual aids in a response to construct a surreal ecosystem. The transportive process of her journey as a foreigner lead Yang to an inner landscape which is the space between homes and the realm of a dreamscape. As a Korean artist living and working in the United States, she has had a unique and multifaceted experience of in-betweenness, moving around the world, and navigating different cultures and environments. Areum’s art reflects this sense of in-betweenness and my search for a sense of belonging. Navigating a new landscape during uncertain times and spaces lead the artist to understand the intuitive state of uncertainty. Vivid, introspective symbols exist within the anthropomorphic landscapes or surreal interiors in her painting. Her emotional state is visualized using dry and wet materials creating expressive compositions. Figures, coarsely rendered in pencil or charcoal, contrast with backdrops painted with colorful, improvisational mark-making. Yet, at moments, the boundaries are blurred, and the subject and atmosphere become one. Yang structures experience without pinpointing. As such, there is an ambiguity in her compositions, which allows them to function as both representations of her inner life and more universal storytelling.

CV

B. 1994
Lives and works in New York, NY

Education
2022 – Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Madison, ME 2021 – MFA, CUNY Hunter College, New York, NY
2017 – BFA, Hongik University, Seoul, South Korea

Solo Exhibitions:
2022 – Trees in Me, Derek Eller Gallery, New York, NY

Selected Exhibitions:
2023 – Nocturne of Symbiose, F2T Gallery, Milan, IT
2022 – To be a giant and keep quiet about it, Margot Samel, New York, NY
2022 – Some Kind of Monster Roster, Analog Diary, Beacon, NY
2022 – Of Foxes and Ghosts, Mamoth, London, UK
2022 – Last Call, Bradley Ertaskiran, Montreal, Canada
2021 – We Were Already Gone, Hauser & Wirth, New York, NY
2021 – Intermission, KCC Gallery, Tenafly, NJ
2019 – Discipline, 154 Stanton St. New York, NY