GALLERY AFTERNOON

Gallery Afternoon is pleased to announce Concrete Garden, a solo exhibition by multidisciplinary artist Yi Seula. The exhibition opens from May 21 to June 12, 2022.

Artist Yi Seula (b. 1990) began her professional career as a book cover illustrator in 2013, gradually expanding her scope to include commercial films and serialized shows. The multidisciplinary visual artist brings a unique style into both the breadth and depth of media she explores, evolves, and expands into. Her recent foray into her early thirties betrays the contemporary art scene’s appreciation for her works - both home and abroad. From Seoul to New York and Paris, she explores cities, and paints cityscapes and city-folk going about their day with a gentle yet detailed brush.

The artist embraces and leans into her place as an urban observer, offering unexpected solace and warmth to the ashiest concrete jungles and bit rate city skylines. The city speaks to her in a beautiful parole that the cement langue does not communicate. She understands the soaring azure sky, the crisp draft that lingers for hours after dawn, the starry black nothingness dabbled over the understated evening cityscape. The city breathes on her canvas, unfurling and curling with undulating life.

A consistent and prolific practitioner, Yi's latest solo exhibition at Gallery Afternoon includes more than 40 works of oil pastels, watercolors, drawings, and others that echo with Concrete Garden, the title and theme of the exhibition.

Concrete is used as a catchword for the houses, roads and streets, stretching bridges and towering skyscrapers that dictate a city's image and ambiance. It is also an adjective, the OED definition being "to exist in a material or physical form; not abstract". But as a phrase, Concrete Garden is a metaphor for our contemporary lives in the urban ecosystem, a garden full of life.

The exhibition pervades the entirety of the exhibition space, and the pencil drawings are a charm to discover throughout the venue like children's illustrated spotter series.

As an urbanite living amidst the dense foliage and flora, under a canopy of concrete, being on the lookout for what can be done within that urban ecosystem was a fascinating practice. I see a dog walker with a dozen or more on the leash, always at the same time. I also see a neighborhood resident at the laundromat, washing blankets all weekend. I see someone eating lunch with a laptop on the table, making a reservation for dinner at a restaurant that just opened. I've seen them, and I've imagined myself in their shoes. The city is where we see reclusive individuals balled up in bed, seeking connection and human warmth through smartphone screens. The city is where we long for the brilliant stars to shine over us, but we also seek the glare of lights over a pristine night sky. The city undulates with the reason and intent of individuals.

The glimmer of our lives, every evening the sparse mosaic of lights and choices sparkle as unique constellations. On days of brilliance the sun and the heavens are refracted by a chandelier of windows, sometimes the clouds to add texture. Then when the sun sinks over the skyline, that urban chandelier would transmogrify to illuminate itself, one glass at a time. I observed from the same place at the same hours, but each day is unique. What was there yesterday won't be what I see today. I would perch myself from a place for better view of the lights, but then find myself among those lights. Here in the city, we are part city, part observer, and sometimes simultaneously its protagonist.

Sometimes - perhaps often - the city presents us with unexpected encounters. It could be a precious gift, or a horribly jinxed chain of events, but nonetheless unexpected. I cherished this quirky and capriciousness of cities, affectionately and diligently transposing what I saw unto white paper. Untouched by intent or even purpose, these observations came together as drawings and paintings. All that I hope for is that the parole of these cityscapes are heard by those who pay attention

CONCRETE GARDEN

Seula Yi

Say hi

Seula Yi

City people

Seula Yi

City girl

Seula Yi

Intermission

Seula Yi

Dog walker

Seula Yi

Light orchestra