Jiyoung Yoo (b. 1991, South Korea) is a visual artist based in London and Seoul. Focusing on how socially constructed orders and categories shape the spatial and temporal dimensions of our consciousness, Jiyoung attempts to visualise the uncontainable gaps within the systems and the latent desires that underlie them through painting, sculpture and installation. Beneath the system that moulds our daily existence lies an inherent drive to eliminate peripheral elements and exclude unpredictable variables, to alleviate collective human anxiety. To achieve precise measurement and fine adjustability, disparate individuals are standardised and intangible qualities are converted into quantifiable units. Her work begins with acknowledging her own comfort and security within such systems, which promise maximum efficiency and productivity, and questioning the reasons behind it. She is currently exploring the idea of time and space as a constructed paradigm.
Jiyoung Yoo completed her MA in Painting at the Slade School of Fine Art, London, in 2017, and received a BFA in Painting from Hongik University, Seoul, in 2014. She has been awarded grants and residencies, including the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture’s Solo Exhibition Grants (2023, 2021), an artist-in-residence position at Acme London Residency in partnership with the Hanwha Foundation of Culture (2024), Seoul Art Space Geumcheon, Seoul (2021), and Katitak Centre, HKBU, Hong Kong (2018). She has held solo exhibitions at KICHE, Seoul (2023); the Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul (2022); ThisWeekendRoom, Seoul (2021); alltimespace, Seoul (2019); and RAINBOWCUBE, Seoul (2018).