I explore the relationship between existence and the world through line.
For me, line is not a formal element used to construct shape, but a record of movement that arises naturally as body and consciousness experience the present moment. Repeated in rhythm with breath and bodily movement, lines accumulate as traces of time and memories of the body, forming an invisible field of relations on the picture plane where existence and the world act upon one another.
My work focuses on the way the body experiences the world. Wind brushing against skin, music seeping into the ear, light and color held in the eye, the texture of materials touching the fingertips — these keep me present in this very moment. Such sensations are not a backdrop to the work but the very source that sets the line in motion.
For me, making art is a form of play — a way of forming a relationship with the world. Play is not an escape from reality but the way the body meets the world most freely and most deeply. When I commune with the world through the five senses, and body and environment breathe within a single rhythm, the line naturally accumulates on the picture plane.
The Line Is a Trace of Experience
This process has taken shape through years of practicing calligraphy and martial arts, and through the daily discipline of drawing lines on paper and canvas. In my work, repeated practice is not a special subject but the attitude that makes the work possible. The line is a trace that reveals itself the moment body and consciousness become one.
Rather than conveying a single image, the finished work offers an experience. Following the flow, density, and rhythm of the lines, viewers become newly aware of their own breath and senses. I hope painting can become a space in which the invisible connections between one existence and another can be felt anew.
Ultimately, what I seek to paint is the experience itself of encountering the world in the present moment through the body. The line is the trace left by that experience, a passage through which the countless relationships between myself and the world can be sensed anew.
Traces of the Body
This series began with the daily practice of drawing lines on large sheets of paper using pencil, colored pencil, and charcoal. For a year, I continued this practice through near-daily drawings alongside material experiments on canvas. During this time, line ceased to function as a sketch and became the very rhythm of the body returning to the same place each day.
Drawing 24-8
109 × 78.8 cm · Mixed media on paper · 2024
Drawing 24-9
109 × 78.8 cm · Mixed media on paper · 2024
Samadhi in Motion
Breath and bodily movement are recorded directly onto the surface. The repeated trajectories of brush and hand do not reproduce a predetermined form; instead, they reveal a process of arriving at quiet concentration through movement. ‘ Jeong ( 定 ) ’ is not stillness but a samadhi reached in the midst of motion, and line and color hold the energy and rhythm of that moment.
Samadhi in Motion 24-7 (Blue Dragon)
80 × 234 cm · Oil and mixed media on canvas · 2024
Samadhi in Motion 24-6
112 × 162.2 cm · Oil and mixed media on canvas · 2024
Samadhi in Motion 24-3
162.2 × 130.3 cm · Oil and mixed media on canvas · 2024, reworked 2025
Imagination of Infinity
By repeating and layering lines, I explore a space that expands endlessly. Line becomes a trace of time and breath, accumulating on the surface as the finite plane transforms into a field of immeasurable depth. Infinity is not a destination to be reached, but a state continuously experienced through the act of drawing.
Imagination of Infinity 21-16
162.2 × 130.3 cm · Oil and mixed media on canvas · 2021, reworked 2024
Imagination of Infinity 23-7
162.2 × 112.1 cm · Oil and mixed media on canvas · 2023, reworked 2024
Indra’s Net
In the Buddhist metaphor of Indra’s Net, all beings are connected, reflecting one another like jewels within a vast net. The lines flowing across the black background represent this invisible web of relationships, while the points of light stand for beings answering one another from their respective places. This sense of connection moves beyond the boundary once thought to separate self and world, allowing existence to be seen anew within relationship.
Imagination of Infinity 22-10 (Indra’s Net)
162.2 × 130.3 cm · Oil and mixed media on canvas · 2022, reworked 2025
Indra’s Net 25-1
112 × 112 cm · Mixed media on canvas · 2025, reworked 2026
Indra’s Net 26-1
24 × 66 cm · Mixed media on hanji paper · 2026
YUMI SONG
Born in Mokpo, Republic of Korea
Based in Gwangju, Republic of Korea
Education
M.F.A., Fine Arts, Chosun University
B.A., Art Education, Chonnam National University
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2026 You Must Live This Moment, ArtSky, Gwangju
2025 Indra’s Net – Being and the Reflection of Light, Pildong Gallery, Seoul
2025 Samadhi in Motion, G&J Gallery, Seoul
2023 Imagination of Infinity – The Third Story, GIST Orong Art Hall, Gwangju
2022 Between True Infinity and Bad Infinity, G&J Gallery, Seoul
2021 Imagination of Infinity – The Second Story, Soam Museum, Gwangju
Selected Group Exhibitions
2025 As It Is, Truly As It Is, Pildong Gallery, Seoul
2025 Beyond the Curtain, G&J Gallery, Seoul
2024 Summer City Idyll, Agora Gallery, New York
2024 Beyond the Horizon, Da Xiang Artspace, Taichung
2023 Connecting Abstraction, Po Kim & Sylvia Wald Museum, Gwangju
2022 Interconnection and Intuition, Agora Gallery, New York
2021 London Art Biennale, Old Town Hall, London
Residencies & Awards
2026 Gwangju Museum of Art International Residency
