SOO RYE YOO RETROSPECTIVE
Soo Rye Art Gallery • Rye, NH • sooryeartgallery.com • January 25–April 25, 2022
The artist Soo Rye Yoo clearly loves the act of exploration when she paints. Energetic, swirling movement along with the use of different media fuels her paintings’ activity. Whether it be a riot of tiny houses piled on top of one another, or a row of diminutive houses on a distant shore, her work merges abstract expressionism with figuration. Boats at sea, cardinals on snow-laden branches, a man with a bird perched on his hat; there is whimsy and brightness in Yoo’s work. Even in her darker paintings, light shines through as a reflection on water, or a lighthouse gleaming on a faraway rocky shore.
In Walk Home II, acrylic on watercolor paper, a man with his back to the viewer stands hunched over, wearing a long overcoat and carrying a bag. All around is thickly blended black, white, and red, producing a mauve mood of somber despair. This, contrasted with Yoo’s vibrant Dream Bird Time to Soar, acrylic and mixed media on linen, reveals the freedom she allows herself as she plays and experiments with her mediums. The tender and delicate Moon Village series is about small-town life in Korea. She also creates large outdoor sculptures using found objects.
A prolific artist, Yoo founded her art gallery in Rye, NH in 2009. Since then, she has showcased local and international artists, as well as her own mixed media work. Painting since the age of 14, Yoo went to an arts high school and then on to college in Seoul, South Korea. She came to the States to study at the New Hampshire Institute of Art in Manchester, NH, for a BFA in painting. Besides running her gallery, along with director David Christopher, Yoo also teaches art to small groups in a separate studio, as well as private classes.
The retrospective of Soo Rye Yoo’s work spanning 40 years displays an undaunted probing into what different combinations of medium can do. She uses round, square, rectangular, and triangular canvases, moving easily between oil and acrylic paint; bold cadmium orange and red, deep cerulean blue. One can imagine Yoo in her studio, dancing with her brushes and paint, enjoying every energetic moment of creation.
—Dian Parker