Artist Biography
Hyun-Mi Yoo (1964, born and based in Seoul, South Korea) combines techniques across sculpture, painting and photography, often merging them into the same composition to challenge our perception of depth and dimension, real and reproduced. These “interdisciplinary images” arise from her interest in reinterpreting classic categories of art, and are informed by influences such as Freudian psychology, the female body, mysticism and symbols in traditional Korean painting.
As a fervent writer, Yoo begins by relating her stories to pictorial ideas. In renowned works such as the series Still Life (2008) and Cosmos (2013), elements in her writings are translated into curious arrangements of objects that are meticulously painted, then photographed. These objects range from rocks and animals to furniture and floating numbers. By repeatedly casting the image into different realms of representation, Yoo layers it with a spatial and textural quality that is at once familiar and otherworldly.
Yoo obtained her BFA from Seoul National University in 1987, and her MFA from New York University in 1992. Her work is in major collections including the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul; Seoul Museum of Art; Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art; and Ilmin Museum of Art, Seoul.
Notable solo exhibitions include Soft Chaos (2022), Buk-Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul; Eyes of number (2017), Savina Museum, Seoul; and The library in my mind (2016), Kyobo Art Space, Seoul. The artist has also participated in major international festivals including We are from somewhere, but where are we going? (2016), 6th Daegu Photo Biennale; 15th Asian Art Biennale Bangladesh (2012); and MADE UP (2008), 5th Liverpool Biennial.
Yoo has had three residencies at the STPI Workshop in 2023, 2024 and 2025.