Sun You

In Sun You’s multimedia painting and sculptures the artist uses a mix of everyday objects and craft materials to create provisional tableaus that celebrate women’s work, domestic ornamentation and the language of abstraction.

For a recent two location exhibition, This Two, You made a series of table top sculptures that loosely reference Ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arrangement. The works are constructed with wire, eyelash extensions, beads, sewing needles, paper clips, razor blades, artificial plants and magnets. They are held together by gravity and magnets, in transitional constructions that vary with each installation.

You’s abstract wall panels operate as both paintings and wall-bound low reliefs. The surfaces of the wood panels are speckled with abstracted three-dimensional forms made of polymer clay, acrylic paint and interior wood moulding. In these works, color is presented as both a physical object and a spatial image. 

Polymer clay, one of the artist’s primary materials, typically is used in craft techniques like bead making. The association with domesticity and baking in her work is reinforced through You’s hand-building techniques of rolling, pinching and firing clay in her home oven. In all of You’s works, the artist draws beauty and humor from humble materials and creates compositions that reflect the joy and fragility of the world.

Sun You is a Seoul born, New York based artist. You has exhibited her work in galleries and museums internationally. Recent exhibition venues include Geary, New York, NY,  Mrs. Queens, NY, The Pit, Glendale, CA, Step Sister, New York,  The Anderson Gallery, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA , Queens Museum, New York, The Korean Cultural Center, New York, Scotty Enterprises, Berlin,  Kunstlerhaus Schloss Balmoral, Bad Ems, Seoul Arts Center, Seoul, SARDINE, New York and The Suburban, Chicago. You was an artist in residence at The Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program, Marble House Project,  Atlantic Center for the Arts, Triangle Arts Association, and Künstlerhaus Schloss Balmoral in Bad Ems, Germany. She was also selected as Artists to Watch in 2016 by WIDEWALLS and 18 Artists to Watch by Modern Painters, 2015. You is currently teaching as a visiting professor at the University of Oregon 2021-2022.