Yi Youjin b. 1980

Gangneung, South Korea in 1980, she first studied at the Sejong University in Seoul but left in the middle of her studies because of their standardised art educational system. After traveling in Europe, she was fascinated by German culture that she experienced while visiting museums and universities. Especially, an encounter with Günther Förg in Munich had a great influence not only on her artistic vision, but also on her autonomous, spontaneous view of life. Yi studied painting at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich from 2004 to 2011 and graduated with a master degree under the guidance of Günther Förg. Probably that is why she is operating with certain German art historian references, mainly from Realism and Symbolism in the late 19th century and Expressionism at the early 20th century. However, it is not cited a way to reproduce historical events, but to examine the capacity of pictorial structure to generate narratives through the fictional ‘reconstruction’ of imaginary happenings based on reality.