{"id":120166,"date":"2025-11-07T08:13:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T08:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/120166\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T08:13:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T08:13:10","slug":"inside-younguk-yis-supremely-weird-paintings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/120166\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside Younguk Yi\u2019s supremely weird paintings"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been found that the human brain detects faces 90-130 milliseconds after looking at an object that could slightly resemble a face \u2013 it\u2019s called face pareidolia. Of course, our eyes are trained to recognise faces in unfamiliar environments because we look at faces all day long. But this is certainly not Younguk Yi<\/a>\u2019s goal, instead the Seoul-based artist\u2019s most productive state is playing in disorientation \u2013 which might be an understatement for his eye-vibrating artworks. \u201cWhen viewers feel their perception wobble \u2013 when the eye cannot settle, when the body becomes aware of its own viewing \u2013 the work has already begun,\u201d says Younguk.<\/p>\n

Younguk\u2019s kaleido-collage drawings are inspired by cities \u2013 aging buildings, collapsing alleys and unfinished concrete frames that reveal social memories, time sedimentation and latent fractures. This is then translated into exploded figurative artworks that rib bodies with ripples of contours and faces with galleries of eyes. His paintings look as if a person glitched like a computer window, frantically replicating itself in rows of fleshy chaos \u2013 or if a painting fell down the stairs, rearranging everything within its frame.<\/p>\n

Here, the rhythms of facial recognition are completely remixed, something Younguk calls \u201cnot subjects of faithful depiction but bodies in negotiation\u201d with altered postures, tensions and relocated limbs \u2013 resisting singular readability. Younguk\u2019s frenzied figurations almost look like \u201cbiblically accurate angels\u201d<\/a> with their uncanny valley levels of contortionist.<\/p>\n

In other words, these paintings are pretty bizarre! Architecture in Korea has long been synonymous with progress and stability, yet Younguk says history tells a different story: the collapse of the Sampoong department store, the failure of Seongsu Bridge and structural controversies surrounding public housing. Younguk renders societal ruptures into bodies colliding with anatomical sense, revealing entirely new visual systems that divert from what we know about looking at faces, bodies and phenotypes, instead becoming hilarious and slightly uncomfortable exercises in keeping your eyes still.<\/p>\n