ARTIST

A pioneer of feminist art in Korea, YUN Suknam (b. 1939) has spent over four decades creating works that illuminate the realities of women’s lives in society. She taught herself how to paint in her forties, and has been a key figure in contemporary art since her first solo exhibition in 1982. YUN’s early works were deeply autobiographical, exploring themes of motherhood and personal history through reflections on her mother’s life. Over time, her artistic scope expanded to include identity, life, nature, and women’s rights, continuously redefining how women are represented in art. In recent years, she has been immersed in reinterpreting historical female figures in her works.

YUN’s major awards include the 8th Lee Joong-sup Award (1996), the Prime Minister Prize (1997), the 29th Kim Se-choong Sculpture Award (2015), the Order Of Civil Merit Moran Medal (2019), and the 23rd LEEINSUNG Art Prize (2022). Her major solo exhibitions include the 23rd LEEINSUNG Art Prize Recipient Exhibition Yun Suknam (2023), Women of Resistance, Becoming Historic (Hakojae Gallery, 2021), Expressions of Contemporary Asian Artist – Special Exhibition by Yun Suknam (Tokushima Prefectural Museum, Japan, 2016), and SeMA Green: Yun Suknam – HEART (Seoul Museum of Art, 2015). Her major group exhibitions include The Friendliest (Incheon Art Platform, 2024), The birth of a new woman (Zaha Museum, 2023), Jeju Biennale 2022 Flowing Moon, Embracing Land (Jeju Museum, Jeju, 2022), and Deoksugung Project 2021: Garden of Imagination (National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, 2021).