Yurim Gough
Ceramic Visual Art
Yurim Gough Video Portrait : https://youtu.be/obhtajMJYc0
Bio
Yurim Gough is an award-winning ceramic artist from South Korea. She worked in Seoul, Tokyo and London as a successful shoe designer before emigrating to the UK, where a fascination with different media led her to discover her creative voice. Yurim began to work on delicate ceramic bowls, overlaying expressive life drawings with contemporary images. Her unique approach to ceramics enabled her to explore her own personal language, identity and passion.
Her first exhibition was in 'The Other Art Fair' at the Arnolfini in Bristol. In 2016, Yurim was diagnosed with breast cancer. Out of this challenging experience, she created the 'VainEgo' project: a series of ceramic self-portraits that captured and documented her emotional journey. In May 2022, 'VainEgo' was exhibited as a highly- acclaimed solo show at the APT Gallery, London, funded by Arts Council England.
Yurim has created several other themed projects, including the 'Gender-fluid' series, which is currently showing at the 'Fondation Bernardaud', Limoges, France; the show will soon move to the museum 'Halle Saint-Pierre' in Paris.
Yurim now lives in Cambridge, England, where her studio is located. Her pieces appear in private collections and have been selected for multiple art prizes, magazine features, and exhibitions, both nationally and internationally.
Artist Statement
My practice explores the complex human emotions and their surrounding performances, people’s appearance, gender fluidity and femininity, with considerations of contemporary culture. Social media trends and current issues hugely influence my work and support me in deeply understanding the rich stories of our humanity.
My life-long love of life drawing with ceramics, mixing my cross-cultural and fashion experiences, breaks the boundaries and also bridges the gap between pottery and fine art to create a new blend of the two.
“Life drawing in front of the living, breathing model is the most stimulating and challenging process for me, becoming almost a performance for an invisible audience.“ The expressive lines are communicated on the rough texture of the hand-moulded stoneware with a ceramic pencil. The jagged figure lines soften under the glaze. Subsequently, a variety of contemporary digital images are cut, layered and re-joined on the concave surface like a puzzle on top of the nude life drawing, leaving the human body visible underneath. In my ceramics, I always incorporate 18k gold – also occasionally kintsugi, threads, crystals, 3D-printed parts, and QR codes.
I find myself drawn to my cultural roots in ceramics, making bowls that hold human figures and show the stories inside- In Korean philosophy, your mind is like a bowl holding all your knowledge and experience of your own humanity.
VainEgo Project
As a woman artist, the VainEgo project moves on from imagined stories to real stories, with myself as the subject. In 2016, during my breast cancer treatment, I drew 162 self-portraits and made 20 bowls on which I did a life drawing of myself onto the contoured form. During lockdown 2020 I made half-sculptures based on 108 selected self-portraits. I call the piece “108 VainEgo Faces: Army of me”. A mantra is repeated for each 108 feelings. This is reached by multiplying smell, touch, taste, hearing, sight, and consciousness by painful, pleasant, neutral, and by internally generated or externally occurring, and yet again by past, present and future.
VainEgo Project
108 Faces : Army of me
Photo by Daniele Roberts
The 20 VainEgo bowls combine the time I was born, my childhood, teen years, and up to now. Unforgettable memories of my life are recorded in this ongoing project. Also, the process of self-life-drawing onto the bowls has been recorded on video. (The VainEgo Exhibition will show at the APT Gallery in London, 12th-29thMay 2022)
Emotion Machine project
This project explores complex emotions; through my artworks, I express different feelings, thoughts and the subconscious mind. I was influenced by the isolation that hugely affected our lives, especially with regard to mental health issues. The vibrant colours represent emotions - they are blended and mixed to indicate passionate feelings.
The idea came when I saw thermal camera images at an airport check. I was drawn to the strong beautiful and vibrant colours - this led me to conceive this project. I started researching how body temperature is connected to human emotions and feelings. One research study that I found excited me - was a project led by Lauri Nummenmaa, a psychologist at Aalto. The research revealed that hot colours show regions that people say are stimulated by emotion, whereas cool colours indicate deactivated areas. Happiness and love sparked activity across nearly the entire body, while depression had the opposite effect: it dampened feelings in the arms, legs and head. Danger and fear triggered strong sensations in the chest area, while anger was one of the few emotions that activated the arms. These research findings helped inform my artistic decisions.
Gender-fluid project
I am interested in the interplay of gender and fashion in the non-binary community. In my series ‘Gender-fluid ‘, I used this interplay as a way to connect with a better understanding of the difficulties and pains the subjects were struggling with and I tried to understand this from their perspective.
As I started researching, I learned a great dealing about beautiful emotions that were incorporated into my work. Indeed, this project with the four gender-fluid models whom I had the fortune to meet had a great influence on the works.
"It's very natural for us humans to ask questions about the world we don't know."
Exhibitions
2024
‘TRANSLATING SCIENCE THROUGH ART’ at Business Design Centre April 22-23 2024, London, UK
‘THE SPIRIT OF BOUDICCA’ AT THE CRYPT GALLERY FOR INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY, 7th Mar -16 Mar 2024, Norwich,UK
‘HEY! CÉRAMIQUE.S’ The museum of La Halle Saint Pierre group show 20th Sep, 2023- 14th Aug 2024, Paris, France
Primavera Gallery, 21 Jan - June 2024, Cambridge, UK
2023
Ruth Borchard Self Portrait Prize, (Shortlisted), at the Atkinson Museum, 23rd Sep - 16th Dec 2023, Sothport, UK
ING Discerning Eye Exhibition, (Shortlisted) Grop show at Mall Galleries, 16th Nov - 31st Dec 2023, London, UK
‘HEY! CÉRAMIQUE.S’ The museum of La Halle Saint Pierre group show 20th Sep, 2023- 14th Aug, 2024 Paris, France
The Other Art Fair, 29th June - 2nd July 2023, London, UK
‘Art on a Postcard’ International Women’s Day Mini Auction curated by Lee Sharrock, 23rd February – 9th March 2023,, London, UK
‘The London Art Fair 23: Reclamation’, Otherlandz, 18-22nd Jan 2023, London, UK
‘Esprits Libres, céramiques en résistance’, Fondation Bernardaud, Ceramic Art Group show, 2022-April 2023, Limoges, France
2022
Winner, ING Discerning Eye Exhibition, Grop show at Mall Galleries, 11-20th Nov 2022, London, UK
Fondation Bernardaud ‘Esprits Libres, céramiques en résistance’ Ceramic Art Group show, 16th June 2022, Limoges, France
Cambridge Open Studios, July, Cambridge, UK
A.P.T Gallery ‘VainEgo’ solo exhibition in May, curated by Lee Sharrock, 12-29th May, London, UK
Artist/Mother Podcast Episode 125, USA
Create Magazine selected issue 25, USA
99 Projects Gallery ‘Rebirth’ Group show in Apr, 4-27th Mar, London, UK
2021
FAD Magazine, London, UK
The Circles of Art (Artists of the Month), London, UK
Figurative Art Now: Mall Galleries, London, UK
Cambridge Open Studios, Cambridge, UK
Create Magazine selected issue 24, USA
Paradigm Gallery, Group Exhibition ‘ Salvage’ curated by Christopher Jobson, Philadelphia, USA
2020
SWA 159th Annual Group Exhibition, London, UK
Hix Art Gallery ‘Beyond the veil’, London, UK
Saatchi Art, Selected by Saatchi Art’s 100 Top Women Artists, USA
2019
The Other Art Fair, Brooklyn, New York, USA
SWA 158 annual exhibition at Mall Galleries, London, UK
Cambridge Open Studios, Cambridge UK
Create Magazine selected issue 15. USA
First solo exhibition ‘Naked in clothes’, London, UK
Ruth Borchard Self-portrait Art Prize, Kings Place(Piano Nobile Gallery), London, UK
2018
Royal West of England Academy, 166th Annual Open Exhibition, Bristol, UK
Cambridge Open Studios, Cambridge, UK
2017
Visual Open Art, Finalist, UK
Flux Exhibition at Chelsea College of Arts, London, UK
Royal West of England Academy, Drawn Exhibition in Bristol, UK
2016
Royal West of England Academy, 164th Annual Open Exhibition, Bristol, UK
The Other Art Fair, London, Uk
2015
The Other Art Fair at Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol, UK
2014
Southbank Art Trail, Bristol, UK
VIDEOS
PRESS
Yurim Gough ‘VainEgo’ Curated by Lee Sharrock
12th – 29th May, 2022
Private view: Thursday 12th May, 6-8pm
APT Gallery
6 Creekside, Deptford
London SE8 4SA
Fine art ceramicist Yurim Gough will have a solo exhibition ‘VainEgo’ at APT Gallery in London from 12-29 May, 2022. The exhibition curated by Lee Sharrock will feature a series of wall-mounted ceramic pieces, drawings, film and photographic prints. 108 VainEgo ‘Army of Me’ ceramic heads will be exhibited at APT, as well as self-portrait drawings, photographs, sketch books and film.
Yurim's ideas are hugely influenced by current issues, especially from social media, exploring issues such as gender fluidity. In order to explore intimately the plethora of complex human thoughts and feelings, she draws directly from life models onto bisque-fired bowls and a variety of colourful translucent images are subsequently layered on top of the life drawing.
While her background is as a successful shoe designer, she is rapidly becoming a sought-after ceramicist in the fine art tradition. Her work is highly skilled - the result of painstaking research and technical excellence and will surely stand the test of time...
Richard Hickman
Emeritus Professor of Aesthetic Development, University of Cambridge
yurim.uk@gmail.com