RYU Yaerim aims to translate virtual narratives – created from sentences and the combinations thereof – into images and to reach an ambiguous place between paintings that are like illustrations and illustrations that are like paintings. The fictional narrative, formed through long – winded description and elaboration of background and setting, becomes the basis for the artist’s work, and in particular, this work can endlessly expand or contract while remaining empty of content, due to the lack of clear narrative structure or message. In this respect, the artist presents herself in her work in the role of an “unreliable narrator”. The narrative begins with a clear sentence contains subject, predicate, and object. These syntactic elements are located in their due places, but at the same time are always open to being switched out for something else. Such pictures drawn on the basis of text are often described as illustrative. The images in the picture do not aid in furthering an understanding of the virtual sentence-narrative on which they are based, but rather disturb it.
RYU Yaerim (b. 1994) is a Seoul-based artist who received her B.F.A. in Painting from Hongik University and completed her M.F.A. in Painting at Korea National University of Arts. Her solo exhibitions has been held at Peres Projects(2023, Berlin), KICHE(2022, Seoul), Show and Tell(2021, Seoul), and Art Space Hyeong(2020, Seoul). She has also participated in group exhibitions at Korean Cultural Center(2023, Hong Kong), Gallery Func(2022, Shanghai), Doosan Gallery(2022, Seoul), BGA maru(2021, Seoul). Yaerim was featured as one of the artists in "Now & Next" by Frieze, sponsored by Chanel Korea, and she was selected for the "Review Project" at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea.