YOON HYUP

b.1982, Korea

 

Yoon Hyup He is a New York-based painter and has been working since early 2000 with murals and live paintings. With a background in music learning, he stated that his artistic process is similar to that of playing improvisational music, where line and dots are called upon to express energy with flow and rhythm.

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Components of various cultures he has experienced are strongly reflected in his works. The rhythm & improvisation in music, the flexibility & radical perspective in various cultures are some of the creative inputs that transform into lines, dots, “rhythms” and colors in his works. A combination of these elements powers the creation of unique abstract paintings. In contemporary art where rhythm and flow transcend mere formal elements, offering new ways of understanding the world, Yoon’s works visually embodies this philosophy, presenting a creative synthesis of Eastern and Western aesthetic traditions. His lines and dots go beyond simple visual expression, forming fluid structures that interweave time and space, drawing viewers into an immersive sensory flow. The order and chaos of major metropolis and the movements of people within it are abstracted and reconfigured in his work. This becomes a visual translation of urban experience, and a way of embodying the inherent rhythms of human life.

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Aesthetically, Yoon Hyup’s compositions evoke Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s concept of rhizomatic thinking. His lines do not begin or end at fixed points; instead, they expand infinitely in all directions, guiding the viewer’s gaze and generating richly layered experiences. This structure mirrors the way humans experience the world—perception itself is not linear but multilayered and dynamic. Life is not a single narrative, but a fluid process in which countless possibilities are intertwined. Yoon Hyup’s work embodies this multiplicity of flow, inviting viewers to reconsider their understanding of reality through a distinctive visual logic.

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Numerous key galleries and have featured Yoon Hyup‘s work, including “Montage,” Tang Contemproary Art, Hong Kong (China, 2025); “Nocturne City,” Lotte Museum of Art, Seoul (Korea, 2024); “Next Episode: Coexist,” Tang Contemporary Art, Seoul (Korea, 2024); “L'Empire des sens,” Tang Contemporary Art, Seoul (Korea, 2022); “Light and Shadow,” StolenSpace Gallery, London (U.K., 2022); The Planets, Nanzuka 2G, Tokyo (Japan, 2021); “Innervisions,” Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea, Milan (Italy, 2019). Yoon Hyup has been featured in articles for HYPEBEAST, JUXTAPOZ and The Korea Times.