Schlomer Haus Gallery Debuts Jun Yang’s New Solo Show
Hold You Tightly
20 July 2022 – San Francisco, CA
As creator and muse of his work, Jun Yang's paintings question his place in the world and how people perceive him. After moving here from Seoul, Korea twelve years ago, Jun feels both accepted and protected living in San Francisco. Jun has felt empowered to embrace fully who he is as a queer Asian immigrant artist and his own unique story of trauma, isolation and healing.
Jun is learning, unlearning and relearning practices as a self-taught artist that limit his own creative expression, challenging rules set by a heteronormative art world and society. His paintings are soulful portraits in unexpected colors. He combines flora and fauna with paper collage and techniques to build up the surface of human skin tones and textures. Striking self portraits use bold scale mixed with delicate layering. This tension creates experiences both joyful and contemplative.
Self-expression is Jun’s power and strength. His art not only fights against judgmental perspectives and exclusionary norms, but his paintings are also love letters to the LGBTQIA+ and immigrant communities, San Francisco, and himself. Jun believes beyond all current limitations, art and the city San Francisco can still send love to find a safe place where one can hold themselves tightly and express themselves freely.
About Jun Yang
Jun Yang is a self-taught, multifaceted, and resourceful artist who uses a broad range of techniques and materials creating art pieces in a variety of sizes, from intimate canvases to full scale murals. Born and raised in Seoul, South Korea, Jun has made San Francisco his home for the past 12 years. The city continues to inspire Jun and his art with its cultural diversity, celebrated urban landscape, natural beauty as well as the socially inclusive culture which provides support and protection for queer artists like him.
Jun’s work seeks to evoke emotions through his use of space and colors. Jun’s art speaks to viewers across cultures and continents in a unique way, transcending the need for common language. Each piece is incomplete until the viewers contribute their own contexts to the artistic conversation.
Jun has shown his work in numerous national and international exhibitions such as the De Young Museum San Francisco, Consulate General Of The Republic of Korea, Piedmont Center For The Arts, as well as Kunsthaus Graz Museum, Graz Austria, MOCA Taipei, Taiwan and galleries in Seoul, Korea. This year, Jun was awarded a Visual Artist Grants 2022 by the San Francisco Arts Commission.
