Evony and Ivory Painting

1967/Masan in KoreaWorks by eclectic painter Young Zoo You seem to transcend boundaries of style and subject matter, resisting easy classification. Combining disparate styles and cultural worldviews, Young Zoo You crafts highly imaginative paintings using mixed media, oil, or acrylic. His messages are conveyed by the use of emotive symbols, some bizarre and playful, others astute and timeless. He makes use of his knowledge of many greats of art history, particularly Van Gogh, co-opting and combining elements in order to create new meaning for our times. We find epic battles for the fate of the universe, complex architectural forms full of inhabitants rising toward the skies, and goddesses cloaked in computer code. Young Zoo You favors robust color schemes and highly complex geometric patterns. Dipping into and selecting references to pop culture, art and world history allows for a universal dialogue based on our shared social history that truly transcends national boundaries. I can contemplate the movement of my heart best in the process of the endless repetition of painting, he says.Young Zoo You lives and works in Busan, South Korea.