Guimi You | Artist | East West Bank Art Program

Informed by her training in traditional Korean painting, Guimi You’s paintings blur reality and daydreams to create paintings alive with magical realism. Having studied at Seoul National University and the Royal College of Art, London, You lived and painted in California for nearly a decade before returning to Seoul in 2023. Her paintings marry various styles, incorporating simple practices found in children’s art, such as coloring numbers, cut paper collages, sketches and bold blocks of color, together with the more formal techniques of traditional Korean landscape painting. The result are landscapes of great intimacy and playfulness, often showing a sole figure with indistinct features, inviting the viewer to place themselves in the beauty of natural environments.

You’s works are in the permanent collections of the Seoul National University Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; the X-Museum, Beijing; Yuz Foundation, Shanghai; Pond Society, Shanghai; the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; the Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio; and ICA Miami. She has been exhibited at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; The Perimeter, London; and was the subject of a solo exhibition at Make Room Gallery in Los Angeles, and Jessica Silverman Gallery in San Francisco. Read more