Guimi You’s paintings exude an air of nostalgia and tranquility, whether depicting atmospheric hazes or dreamlike memories. Based in Seoul, this artist crafts dreamy oil paintings that draw on personal experiences, the passage of time, and the evolving perspectives and desires of life.
You’s works incorporate elements of still life and landscape, where unnamed characters reflect silently in gardens, pause in golden meadows, or wander through rainy parks. In “Spring Walk,” cerulean shadows highlight the magenta jacket of a woman walking her dog by a stream, while “Painting, Again” shows a woman seated at an easel in a doorway.
Some of these pieces are part of You’s solo exhibition, When the Sun Shines Again, at Lehmann Maupin. This collection is described as a meditation on rediscovery and new beginnings. According to the gallery, “Conceived as a tribute to those who have returned to creating after time away, the works unfold through a recurring image of sunlight, an enduring symbol of clarity, renewal, and hope.”
In these paintings, figures sometimes fade into the background like secondary characters, allowing spaces filled with objects, varying light, and portals to take precedence. Faces are often obscured or shadowed, looking introspectively down or away. Some figures appear deep in thought, while others focus on creative tasks like pottery or painting. This sense of somberness mixed with hope reflects the courage needed to start anew.
The gallery notes that You’s artistic method “synthesizes East Asian pictorial traditions of evocation and atmospheric transparency with Western lineages such as Romanticism and Surrealism, positioning landscape not as an escapist subject, but as a space for reflecting on memory, subjectivity, and how we situate ourselves within the world.”
When the Sun Shines Again runs until August 14 in New York City.
