BYUN, Youn mi

Call of the forest

Relentlessly, obsessively and boldly, the forest is the one and only subject of her paintings.

When she arrived in France, she saw devastated forest with beheaded trees.

The winter storm (Lothar) of 1999 destroyed much of the French forest.

Hence begins a strong complicity between Youn-Mi Byun and the forest.

Cezanne wrote, “One cannot be too conscientious, too sincere, or too submissive to nature”.

His passion was his mountain Saint Victoire.

Nature and Truth

Cezanne said “I stayed a long time without power, without knowing how to paint the Saint-Victoire”.

Gradually, his painting was reconstructed with weight and beauty. Mont Sainte-Victoire now belongs to the history of paintings.

The Korean artist thickens the trunks of trees with sand, varnish and coffee grounds.

Unlike Cezanne, her tree tops aspire to heights extended beyond the limit of canvas. Up in the sky, those branches are dazzling.

Colors simply become a filter for light. In her atelier, real forest is transformed into a forest in fantasy.

Soft lights illuminate the inside of tree rows with sophisticated branches and graphics.

Visual image, lighting and luminous intensity of the sky intertwine with inner emotions taking the air of climatic phenomena.

Oversized, uninhabited forests of Youn-Mi Byun remind metaphysical landscapes of Gaspard Friedrich.

Fine lines, meticulous lightness, exuberance of design subtly reveal their oriental origins.

Muted yellow, shaded blue, unreal violets are all unique. These forests, she always calls them, black forests.

Neo-romantic?

We are far from dark segments, broken lines, apocalyptic visions of her paintings at the beginning.

The forest has regained its place in her paintings. Her trees have grown.

In this mysterious and mythical setting without characters, the soul seems to wander around in everywhere.

The entire view evokes the idea of universal feeling; nature is far stronger than us.

Moderated by subdued colors, purely poetic, the romanticism of Youn-Mi Byun is tribute, recognition and reverence for nature and also identification.

The links between the identities of nature and of spirit are sealed.

For the first time, the wooden house hidden behind bushes and weeds announces the appearance of humans.

Her most recent canvases are suffused in a strange dual-tone of the atelier. Her forest is intimate to her, like a silent film.

One can think of the blue tones of Rembrandt or Jacques Monory. Magic of cold penetrates her, it is winter.

So much of loyalty to the subject is a rare thing in the artistic productions.

But what is even rarer, is the discovery as in each of her new paintings; renaissance and the unexpected.

Ileana Cornea art critic

BYUN, Youn mi

Née en 1964 à Daegu, Corée du sud

Diplôme de l'Ecole des Beaux Arts Chukae, Séoul

Vit et travaille à Paris depuis 1994

Expositions personnelles

2011, 2008, 2005 Galerie SEJUL Séoul, Corée du sud

2009, 2007 Galerie Christinepark Paris France

2006 Galerie KunstDoc Séoul, Corée du sud

2002 Galerie d'art espace culturel E. Leclerc Vitry sur seine. France

2001 Galerie d'art de l'aérogare d'Orly Sud, Aéroport de paris France

2000 Galerie Prieuré de Pont-Loup Moret sur Loing, France

1999 Galerie CROUS Beaux-Arts Paris France

Expositions collectives

2010 Yeosu International Art Festival Yeosu Coree du sud

2009 PASSAGE 2009 Universal Cube Baumollspinnerei Leipzig

2008 Amitiés Galerie Mel contemporary Autriche Vienne

2007 Femme y es-tu ? Orangerie du Sénat Artsenat Paris

2006 les 4 artistes Galerie Joëlle Possémé Paris

Rencontre internationale des arts Chapelle St Louis l’hôpital Salpêtrière

Collections

Musée national d’art contemporain Séoul

Hotel de ville de Monaco

Arte Banck (Musée national d’art contemporain Séoul)