Exhibition view of "BAE YOON HWAN: WHAT? IN MY BACK YARD?!" at Gallery Baton, Seoul. June 29 - July 30, 2022. Courtesy of the artist and Gallery Baton.
Bae Yoon Hwan’s second solo exhibition at Gallery Baton in Seoul runs until July 30, 2022. Bae creates narratives in his paintings by combining information from various media and personal experiences. Eighteen new works are on display in this exhibition, focusing on the environmental and social issues that have not only been the artist’s interest but are also some of the world’s biggest issues today.
Bae uses various media, from paintings to animation, as storytelling is the key point in his works. In What? In My Back Yard?!, Bae presents new paintings. The exhibition title derives from the term “Not in My Backyard” (NIMBY) to relate the works to social issues such as the pandemic, climate change, natural disasters, and capitalism. Personified animals and comically drawn figures on the canvases reflect the social issues that exist in our society. The artist touches on rather heavy subjects, but the scenes he creates are more humorous than serious.
Bae Yoon Hwan (b. 1983) has held solo exhibitions at Doosan Gallery New York (2018), Space Mom (2014), and Insa Art Space (2014). Bae has also been included in group exhibitions at SeMA (2022, 2018), Geumcheon Foundation for Arts and Culture (2021), Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art (2019), and Jeju Museum of Art (2019). He was selected as a resident artist at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA), Doosan Gallery New York, and SeMA Nanji. His works are in the collections of MMCA, SeMA, Museum of Contemporary Art Busan, and Cheongju Museum of Art in Korea. He was on the shortlist for the thirty-sixth JoongAng Competition Grand Prix.
