Mark Yang

Employing the formal study of composition, colour and line, Mark Yang creates large-scale paintings that depict interwoven nude male bodies, addressing his identity as an immigrant, Korean-American man. The maze of faceless, tubular limbs painted in striking combinations of bright colours show men wrestling – or embracing – in impossible, entangled proximity. Subverting notions of masculinity, Yang alludes to male intimacy being more common in Korean culture than that of the West. Remininist of the legacy of artists such as Eakins, Bacon and Mapplethorpe, as well as the imagery of Ancient Greece, Yang’s practice navigates questions of gender, ethnicity and migration through psychologically-charged, dizzying canvases of ambiguous bodies, blurring the line between aggression and intimacy. Written by Goldsmiths CCA ...

Various Small Fires (Los Angeles /Dallas /Seoul) began as a series of conversations with artists and curators in Esther Kim Varet’s Venice Beach kitchen while working on her doctoral dissertation. VSF debuted in Hollywood as an official gallery in 2015 with a roster of artists and its current Johnston MarkLee Architects-designed building. The Hollywood gallery contains three exhibition spaces, a unique sound corridor, and an outdoor gallery. VSF’s exhibition program explores several curatorial lines: climate, equality, and an international conversation. The gallery is known for offering artists debut shows, creating intergenerational conversations among the artists on its roster, and solidifying artists’ legacies within art history. In 2019, VSF opened a second location in the Hannam neighbourhood of Seoul, South Korea, followed recently this Spring by VSFs third outpost in Dallas, Texas. While Varet has very personal connections to both locations, they are also superlative art communities. These expansions emphasise the gallery’s commitment to innovation and global dialogue in the twenty-first century. In 2021, VSF became a member of the Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA). ...