Yoon Hyup (b. 1982 – Seoul, South Korea) is known for his vibrant use of lines and dots to create minimalistic and abstract city scape paintings. Improvisational expression is an essential element for the artist.
Hyup originally worked as a street artist and names such artists as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Nam June Paik and musician DJ Krush as sources of inspiration.
About the artist’s work
From a very early age, influences of skate culture and Hip-Hop helped to shape his unique view of the world. Yoon Hyup’s distinctive style is expressed through the improvisation, rhythm and flow that he feels when skateboarding and listening to music as he traverses the city. Geometric shapes in bright, bold hues dance vibrantly off on his canvas. For the artist, his images are also tied to personal feelings of hope and perseverance and as such his artworks become bridges that connect his experiences, from the action to the canvas, through light and shadow and positive rhythmic adventures.
An important factor in shaping the artist’s unique abstract line and dot work, derives from his experience in using different creative tools from indoor to street, such as paint brushes, computer graphic programs, spray cans, paint markers and so on.
Yoon Hyup’s paintings capture the energy and chaos of urban life through kaleidoscopic linework and pointillist compositions. Hyup’s minimalist canvases often look like blurred photographs of sprawling city skylines (and occasionally idyllic beachfront views), but are actually composed of precisely rendered abstract acrylic marks, resulting in works that capture both the views and ambient feeling of being in a particular place.
Exhibitions and collaborations
Hyup has exhibited in New York, London, Seoul, Milan, Tokyo, Miami, and Hong Kong and has collaborated with Dior, Tiffany & Co., Nike, Maison Kitsuné, and Uniqlo, among others.
Nowadays Yoon Hyup lives ans works in Brooklyn, New York.