Exhibitions and Reviews
IN THE GALLERIES: RURI YI
MARK JENKINS FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
February 17, 2023
The capsule-shaped forms in Ruri Yi’s hard-edge abstractions are arranged so methodically that the occasional deviation can appear dramatic — or comic. In her Hemphill Artworks show, the Korea-born Baltimore artist stacks or lines up identically shaped tablets of various flat, bright colors on white backgrounds with machine-like precision.
Eq.012, 2021, Acrylic on canvas, 66 x 54 inches
HEMPHILL ARTWORKS
Solo Exhibition
January 14 - February 25, 2023
Opening Reception: January 14, Saturday, 6-8pm
Hemphill Artworks
434 K Street NW
Washington DC, 20001
http://www.hemphillfinearts.com/exhibitions/ruri-yi
Eq. 003, 2020, Acrylic on canvas, 66x54 inches
PAZO FINE ART
21 MAY - 7 JULY 2022
THE SPACES IN BETWEEN
RURI YI & DON VOISINE
Curated by Paul Corio
PAZO FINE ART
4228 Howard Ave Kensington, MD 20895
An installation view of “The Spaces In Between.” (Gregory Staley/Pazo Fine Art)
THE WASHINGTON POST
VOISINE & YI
MARK JENKINS, THE WASHINGTON POST, JULY 1, 2022
The affinity between Don Voisine and Ruri Yi is right there in black and white — and their sparing use of color. The two artists, paired in Pazo Fine Art’s “The Spaces in Between,” are of different backgrounds and generations. But both paint hard-edge geometric abstractions whose occasional irregularities are carefully calculated.
Voisine is a Maine-born New Yorker whose designs were initially derived from the floor plans of apartments where he worked on renovation crews. The works in this selection, all made between 2011 and 2020, mostly center on large black forms that are bracketed at top and bottom by brightly hued bands. The compositions appear formal and stationary, yet have a swooping energy and are enlivened by color contrasts that range from subtle to emphatic.
All but one of Yi’s paintings in this show arrange lozenges on white fields. The Seoul-born Baltimorean varies the 2019-2022 pictures by rendering a few of the identical shapes in various colors other than black, and by occasionally allowing one to slip out of alignment. In one of her pictures, for example, a line of black forms is gently disrupted by a purple one that nudges the upright one to its left. The effect is quietly comic, and also a statement of artistic control. Yi can arrange her paintings with precise predictability, but she doesn’t have to.
Softcover, Dimensions: 8x10, Pages: 44
THE SPACES IN BETWEEN
An exhibition catalog with text by Paul Corio is available through Pazo Fine Art.