Yoon Soyeon
Quite coincidence, 2022
Oil on canvas
130.3 x 97 cm
Unique Works
Certificate of Authenticity included
About the Work
- Materials
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 130.3 x 97 cm
- Frame
- Frame not included
- Signature
- Unsigned
- Certificate of Authenticity
- Certificate included
In early November, the sea around the island appeared calm - but never truly was. One moment, the wind was so fierce it could push a body off balance. The next, the sky would clear without warning, sunlight breaking through and transforming the water’s surface entirely. Between those changes - between turbulence and stillness - was a space where the artist’s gaze came to rest. Quiet Coincidence is born from this in-between. It does not depict a fixed state or a decisive moment, but rather the delicate tension between opposites: light and shadow, silence and motion, clarity and uncertainty. This painting is not about capturing the landscape, but about lingering within its impermanence- about letting the eye and the mind settle into the subtle rhythm of unpredictability. Yoon Soyeon paints with oil in a way that mirrors the sea she observes - layer by layer, with patience and sensitivity. Her brushwork carries the ebb and flow of wind and water, while her palette shifts like the sky above the horizon line. The large canvas feels immersive, yet restrained, allowing viewers to experience the space not only visually, but almost somatically. At its core, Quiet Coincidence is not a portrayal of nature, but an echo of feeling. It invites stillness without denying motion, and invites reflection without insisting on meaning. The artist does not try to resolve the contradiction between calm and chaos - instead, she gently opens a space for both to exist. This work is a meditation on transient balance: a moment that could easily be missed, and yet holds the fullness of experience within it. In a world that often demands clarity, Yoon offers a different kind of honesty - the kind found in accepting the beauty of what arrives by chance, and what cannot be held for long. 한글번역: 11월의 섬 바다는 예측할 수 없는 존재였다. 고요해 보이다가도 갑자기 휘몰아치는 바람, 잠시 후면 먹구름이 걷히고 다시금 태양이 떠올라 물빛을 완전히 바꾸어 놓는—그 순간들 사이, 윤소연은 ‘마음이 머물 수 있는 어떤 지점’을 발견한다. 《고요한 우연》은 바로 그러한 경계에서 탄생한 회화다. 확정되지 않은 상태들, 이쪽도 저쪽도 아닌 순간들, 그리고 그 사이에 잠깐 열리는 평온함. 그것은 완벽히 고요한 것도, 완전히 격렬한 것도 아니며, 우리가 자주 지나치지만 놓치기 쉬운 ‘진짜 시간의 표면’이다. 작가는 이 대형 캔버스 위에 파도처럼 겹쳐지는 색의 결을 얹고, 바람의 흔들림 같은 붓질의 리듬을 담아낸다. 유화는 이 모든 인상들을 느린 호흡으로 받아들이고, 그 느림 덕분에 우리는 빠르게 지나가버린 감정 하나를 천천히 바라볼 수 있게 된다. 이 작품의 본질은 ‘포착’이 아니라 ‘머무름’에 있다. 고요함과 요란함이 교차하는 시간 속에서, 작가는 어느 하나를 선택하지 않는다. 오히려 그 사이 어딘가에 자리를 내어주며, 우리가 놓치고 지나쳤던 찰나적 균형—불완전하지만 아름다운 흐름을 담아낸다. 《고요한 우연》은 우리가 흔히 생각하는 ‘풍경화’의 틀을 벗어나, 감정의 리듬과 자연의 흐름이 조용히 교차하는 회화적 응시다. 그것은 바다의 변화이자, 마음의 상태이며, 세상의 모든 우연이 고요로 수렴하는 순간에 대한 기록이다.
About the Artist
Yoon Soyeon’s paintings draw our attention to what we so often overlook: the quiet companions of daily life - delivery boxes, paper shopping bags, hand-folded paper planes. These modest objects, familiar to the point of invisibility, become transformed in her hands into something tender and strangely expansive. Her work does not seek drama or spectacle. Instead, it offers a delicate choreography of space and emotion - composed, restrained, but emotionally resonant. The spaces she constructs on canvas are not fixed interiors or defined exteriors. Rather, they are elastic rooms of feeling: containers of memory, stillness, and private reverie. A paper box in her work may be a room, a window, or a sea; it may hold the weight of routine or the lift of a fleeting dream. 한글번역: Using oil paint - a medium that rewards patience - Yoon builds her images slowly, allowing thought and feeling to collect between layers. Her preference for this slow-drying medium mirrors the pace of her inner rhythm. Painting becomes a space not of performance but of listening; not of resolution but of ongoing attention. There is an understated symbolism at play. The recurring presence of boxes and bags - fragile, temporary, and portable - becomes a metaphor for emotional containment and spatial possibility. They are at once grounded and nomadic, soft structures through which the artist navigates both the self and the outside world. Central to Yoon’s artistic philosophy is a quiet inquiry, often unspoken but persistent: Am I content? Am I still in love with this work? How long can I go on painting? These questions are not declarations of doubt but rituals of reflection - moments of pause that have accompanied her for more than two decades as a working artist. Her recent projects show an expanding horizon. The introduction of nature—sky, forest, sea - and elements like paper boats and airplanes suggest a desire not to escape, but to breathe. Her world remains rooted in the everyday, but her gaze reaches outward, gently. The box is still here, but now it contains wind. For Yoon, painting is not a means of escape from anxiety - it is a way of holding it, tending to it, allowing it to soften over time. Her work does not shout, but it stays. And in that staying, there is warmth, generosity, and a quiet resilience. If, in front of one of her paintings, a viewer finds themself smiling - softly, for no reason at all - then perhaps the painting has already done its work.