Hiejin Yoo's second solo exhibition at Half Gallery Where I Want To Be strays from Yoo's exploration of every day traditions and home life (what was once a comfort can now be considered a burden in 2020) and focuses on the wanderlust many have found themselves in during this time of quarantine.
In Go On A Picnic, Yoo turns our attention to the surreal early Technicolor like palette of a winding desert road (a slight nod to Hockney's Southern California panoramic mountains), a solitary and valid option to safe travel and dining within an emptied landscape.
Yoo's nostalgia grows in these works, such as in What I Miss, a painting that offers little windows into different aspects of the artist's life that no longer exist in a season-less Los Angeles. As we peer through the looking glass – one sees a snow filled field and a window glowing warm from a chilled brick apartment, both memories of Yoo's former time in Chicago.
In Live Long and Prosper Yoo focuses on older customs and her Korean upbringing; weddings include the throwing of chestnuts and dates - she adds oranges as an homage to her own health and wellness.
Hiejin Yoo (b. 1987, Germany) received her MFA from UCLA in 2018. She has shown in exhibitions at Blum and Poe, Los Angeles; Almine Rech Gallery, London; Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York and the Hort Family Collection, New York. She lives and works in Los Angeles, California.

Opening:
Saturday, December 12th, 12-6 PM

mpefm USA art press release