Yi Young Uk (b. 1991) explores how the form of repetition functions effectively in contemporary contexts. For instance, he experiments with various organic expressions that break away from rigid formal frameworks—such as creating patterns through the repetition of realistically rendered images, deconstructing forms, or translating them from two-dimensional surfaces into three-dimensional structures.
 
In his paintings, where dynamic transformations of form take place, the familiar and the unfamiliar coexist, resulting in a third form that expands the viewer’s perceptual framework.

Looking at Yi Young Uk’s past trajectory, his practice began with oil-based realism and gradually expanded to include paintings that collage unrelated images within a single frame. Over time, his work has developed along a distinct path, and since 2019, it has moved toward an exploration of the infinite possibilities inherent in patterns.
 
His solo exhibition 《181cm, 83kg, XS》 at Laheen Gallery in 20211 showcased works that reflect this inquiry into pattern. Filled with rounded, cartoon-like characters arranged in dense formations, these paintings convey a lively and cheerful atmosphere.

The systematically arranged figures may be perceived as a single, large pattern from a distance, but upon closer inspection, one discovers that the round, cartoon-like characters are secretly engaged in suggestive acts—mocking the double standards surrounding sexuality in our society.
 
In this way, Yi Young Uk conceals socially taboo subjects beneath the surface of orderly patterns, evoking in viewers a sense of liberation that defies repression and concealment.

Yi Young Uk also engages in a process of emptying his inner self through the repetitive act of building up patterns. As he meticulously stacks the patterns in precise rows and columns, guided by his own choices and intentions, the act becomes one of gradual release and emptying. From this process, where the extremes of restraint and freedom collide, emerge strange yet harmonious forms.

In his 2023 solo exhibition 《When the remote control did not work, the drone crashed to the floor》 at Art Center Art Moment, Yi Young Uk presented repetition and arrangement of forms as a methodology for uncovering contradictions embedded in internalized prejudices.
 
The repetition and sequencing, which have been consistent elements in his previous works, serve both as traces of the artist’s thought processes and as propositions for discovering new perspectives. The subjects within the canvases are arranged side by side, sometimes overlapping or scattered at random.

These works stem from the artist’s intuitive curiosities, expressed through questions such as: “Can beauty remain the same when repeated?”, “If an interesting part of a form is repeated, can it appear as an entirely different object?”, “Can the repetition of existing forms reveal why they move the way they do?”, and “Are repeated objects a cluster of individual entities, or traces of movement left by the passage of time?”
 
Accordingly, the recurring forms that appear in his work—such as dragon heads, eagles, peacocks, chimpanzees, and flowers—are not chosen for their symbolic meaning, but rather selected based on the artist’s simple questions or intuition. By repeating these intuitively chosen forms, Yi Young Uk explores the possibility of discovering entirely new sensations and aesthetic experiences.

Additionally, in this exhibition, Yi Young Uk translated the form of repetition from the two-dimensional plane into three-dimensional space. The group of busts gathered at the center of the gallery may appear as an ordinary crowd from a distance, but upon closer inspection, each individual head reveals forms that defy conventional expectations.
 
Unlike typical busts, they feature peculiar and unsettling combinations—heads filled only with beautiful eyes, faces composed of abdominal muscles, or heads pierced with fish heads—resulting in strange and disorienting figures.

Yi Young Uk created each bust based on people around him or infused with elements of his imagination. Rather than replicating the original subjects as they were, the artist sought to peel away the external skin that forms their social persona, revealing their inner selves—their individuality, identity, and thoughts—on the surface of the face.
 
The resulting busts boldly expose the mind's extreme chaos, obsessive and compulsive thoughts, traumatic nightmares, and hidden, sensual desires through their skin. Each figure radiates a sense of liberation, asserting its own unique identity without restraint.

In this exhibition, the artist also explores the relationship between the two-dimensional and the three-dimensional. The form of the amberjack, confined within cubic planes instead of its original flexible skin, oscillates between dimensional states, disrupting the viewer’s sense of perspective.
 
This work is based on the artist’s questions: “Can a three-dimensional object appear flat, and at the same time, can a flat surface appear three-dimensional? And if movement is added, what form might it take?”

The body of the amberjack fish, segmented into cubic sections, is meticulously depicted on all three-dimensional surfaces—the top, bottom, sides, and cross-sections. The cross-section of the amberjack, rendered with realistic detail, evokes the freshness of sashimi, while the face of the fish on the front presents itself to the viewer as a dynamic and strange form layered with vigorous head movements.
 
The amberjack exists simultaneously as flat planes within each segmented piece and, when these pieces come together, evokes the image of a three-dimensional fish. In this work, Yi Young Uk reveals the ambiguity created by the coexistence of flatness, three-dimensionality, and movement. This ambiguity induces perceptual confusion in the viewer and ultimately confronts them with a point where deeply ingrained familiarity begins to collapse.

Through this series of works, Yi Young Uk has explored the possibilities of hidden aspects and transformations discovered through transition—moving from the plane to the three-dimensional and back again from three-dimensional to plane. In the following year’s solo exhibition 《Deformation of the Frame》 at OCI Museum of Art, he focused on painting to experiment with the pictorial forms implied by the act of repetition and to expand the sensory experience of the images that can arise from it.

Yi Young Uk questions how the form of repetition functions effectively in the present era through his methodology of deconstructing, recombining, and arranging images. The paintings presented in this exhibition feature bodies of subjects that are realistically rendered yet segmented in peculiar ways, overlapping and arranged in sequences.

The realistic and detailed depictions evoke a sense of familiarity in the viewer, while the images emphasized in orderly sequences provoke unfamiliarity, creating a sensory clash. The intricate compositions formed by the arrangement of images resemble computer graphics or generated imagery, leading the viewer into a visual illusion.

The sensations of unfamiliarity and discomfort arise not only from the deliberate repetition but also from the twisted forms composed of segmented body parts. Curator Hyun Jung Moon interpreted these forms made up of incomplete bodies as deliberately deconstructing the series of visual cognitive acts by which we fully reconstruct familiar shapes in our minds.
 
His paintings evoke uneasy emotions through incomplete bodies while simultaneously embodying the anxious emotions inherent in compulsive repetitive acts.

Since beginning his pattern work in 2019 by repeatedly painting specific images on the canvas, Yi Young Uk has developed his practice by using an airbrush to smoothly and flexibly connect images, creating a stronger sense of continuity than before. In his recent works, the artist has begun to employ repetition and variation by expanding on ‘manipulated forms’ that defy expectations.
 
According to the artist, the reason for grotesquely manipulating patterns is to honestly express his own image and story as they intersect with facets of contemporary society. In the 2024 group exhibition 《Homo Narrans》 at Laheen Gallery, Yi Young Uk presented works that reconstruct narratives of himself and his surroundings—elements he had largely excluded in his earlier works.

The artist’s interests reflected in these works primarily lie in reconstructing the stories of himself and those around him—stories often filled with everyday consumer language—into new contexts. For example, Portrait of a Person Slightly Touching Their Nose (코를 슬쩍 만지는 사람의 초상) (2024) depicts a friend who, feeling a strange anxiety during conversations, secretly touches their nose whenever the other person isn’t looking. This painting reveals Yi Young Uk’s narrative that navigates between provocation and playfulness.
 
Through the unstable manipulation and repetition of fragmented images, Yi Young Uk’s working method can also be understood as a personal act of structurally editing stories about himself and his surroundings, connecting the external world with his own identity, and confirming his position through his paintings.

Recently, Yi Young Uk has been exploring the point at which fragmented manipulated body images overlap—either intentionally or unconsciously—and has begun experimenting with portraiture through this approach. He has continuously developed a method of repeatedly replicating and weaving together fragments of disassembled bodies, creating an experimental tension where “continuity” and “uncanniness” collide.
 
His work, encompassing both order and chaos, invites viewers to experience a moment of “pause” in their thinking. Although his images appear strikingly clear before our eyes, they never convey straightforward concepts or meanings. Existing in ambiguity and contradiction, Yi Young Uk’s works resist conventional modes of appreciation and, through a sensation of discomfort, encourage shedding prejudices and reconsidering the space-time we inhabit and ourselves from a fresh perspective.

 “Through a methodology of deconstructing, recombining, and arranging images, I wanted to show how the form of repetition functions effectively in our present era. I approach my work with the intention of expanding perceptual frameworks through the new explosiveness that arises in the process of repeating images.”    (Yi Young Uk, from an Interview with BE(ATTITUDE) Magazine)

Yi Young Uk graduated from Dankook University, Department of Western Studies, and completed his MFA and PhD programs at Hongik University, Department of Painting. His major solo exhibitions include 《Deformation of the Frame》 (OCI Museum of Art, Seoul, 2024), 《When the remote control did not work, the drone crashed to the floor》 (Art Centre Art Moment, Seoul, 2023), 《A Fragment Thrown Up by a Dumped Image》 (Rund Gallery, Seoul, 2022), and 《181cm, 83kg, XS》 (Laheen Gallery, Seoul, 2021).
 
Yi has also participated in various group exhibitions, including 《APOLLO》 (WWNN, Seoul, 2025), 《Homo Narrans》 (Laheen Gallery, Seoul, 2024-2025), 《The Vanishing Horizon》 (WWNN, Seoul, 2024), 《Back to Back》 (everyArt, Seoul, 2023), and more.
 
Yi Young Uk was selected for ‘2023 ARTIST PROLOGUE’ at Art Center Art Moment in 2022 and ‘2024 OCI YOUNG CREATIVES’ at OCI Museum of Art in 2023. He is currently teaching at Chung-Ang University.

References

• 비애티튜드, 회화의 새로운 폭발성
• 라흰갤러리, 181cm, 83kg, XS (Laheen Gallery, 181cm, 83kg, XS)
• 아트센터 예술의 시간, [서문] 리모컨이 작동하지 않자 드론은 바닥으로 내리 꽂혔다 (Art Center Art Moment, [Preface] When the remote control did not work, the drone crashed to the floor)
• OCI 미술관, [서문] 틀의 변용 (OCI Museum of Art, [Preface] Deformation of the Frame)
• 라흰갤러리, [서문] 호모 나랜스 (Laheen Gallery, [Preface] Homo Narrans)
• 비애티튜드, 회화의 새로운 폭발성