Dépouillé
What a year we’ve had...
We have all been hurt and hugely affected by the pandemic; we’re still in recovery mode and facing an unknown near future. While some see this as an opportunity, some are devastated and may never recoup from this event. I don’t want to sound like I’m trying to make a big statement here: We’re all in this together. I spent this past winter thinking about the near future and how we are going to recover and when, but the answers weren’t forthcoming or clear. These unknowns and the ever-faster-changing technology move the gallery business in different directions.
I could only think of one thing: I began to think of our rebirth. I started looking at things using different angles, sorting out memories and moments when beauty might have been overlooked.
In our mother’s womb, we are made of water: water means healing. This is where we started. Water touches our souls. The way we can recover and heal from disaster, fundamentally, is to go back to nature and start again. There’s a wonderful French word, dépouillé, which means without any ornament. Everything stripped away. I was thinking about water purity. Going back to nature and simplicity, just simple beauty, was what crossed my mind during these hard times.
Breathe. Calm down. Let go of all anxiety. Accept the truth and start all over again. Take one day at a time. Check on our body. Listen to your mind, body, and soul. Our fundamental relationship with water forms the essential bond between the human world and nature. This is the core of Galerie Youn’s 2021 summer group exhibition.
Blush IV
Photograph, digital print, 2021, 12" x 8" (edition of 25) 24" x 16" (edition of 15) 48" x 32" (edition of 10). Also available framed.
EVA BLUE
Eva is a professional photographer by trade and a child at heart. She is based out of Montréal, Canada and suffers from wanderlust. Eva graduated in fine arts from Concordia University, specializing in studio arts. She fell into photography in later years and never looked back. As a predominantly self- taught photographer, she’s been documenting what she sees ever since, seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary, finding beauty in the unexpected, and truth through the lens.
Her lens has witnessed Barack Obama, Justin Trudeau, Lady Gaga, Radiohead, Metallica, Spike Lee, Stevie Wonder, Madonna, and the list goes on. Her photography has been published in the New York Times, The New Yorker, Vice, The LA Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Guardian, NPR, Mother Jones, Out Magazine, various Montréal publications, and more. She is currently freelancing for Tourisme Montréal
DAN CLIMAN
Born and based in Montréal, Dan received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver, Canada. Working in acrylic, Dan employs the use of precise lines and exact forms, a skill honed through his over- decade long background as a tattoo artist and graphic designer. His paintings touch on themes of escapism and observation in a brief, concise plot that often has no resolution.
Travel Equipment
Acrylic on canvas mounted on panel, 2021, 60” x 72”
Roto 20
Kinetic sculpture, 2021, 72” x 72” x 48”
TODD DUNNING
Todd is a pioneering kinetic sculptor in San Francisco. His early welded mechanical steel sculptures were evocative of Jean Tinguely and David Smith. His current works— crafted from dielectric elastomers, titanium, carbon fibre, and 3D printed internals—are more organism than machine, moving powerfully and intelligently like a living creature. Their motion is self-determined, never machinelike, and always different. Todd has exhibited in the Bay Area and nationally and can be found in several private collections, notably the Lester Marks Collection, Houston. Recent exhibitions of his current body include a group show at the International Art Museum of America and a solo exhibition at Gray Contemporary in Houston, Texas.
AHMAD NASER ELDEIN
Ahmad is a Palestinian photographer based in Montréal. A regular contributor to various print publications and online platforms, he has also participated in multiple group and solo exhibitions in Palestine and Canada. His focus and research tackle representations of queer and political identities. Through his portraits, he captures the human physique and how it reflects expressive emotions and states of mind.
Ahmad’s interest in photography goes back to his time studying at Bir Zeit University, while learning film photography and producing documentary essays. He holds a special appreciation for analogue techniques and darkroom labs. More recently, he has shifted his practice towards the digital world and is delving into conceptual and fine-art realms.
Alone and Together III
Photograph, digital print on Hannemühle PhotoRag ultra smooth matte 305 g, 2020, 20" x 30" (edition of 10). Also available framed.
Alone and Together VI
Photograph, digital print on Hannemühle PhotoRag ultra smooth matte 305 g, 2020, 20" x 30" (edition of 10). Also available framed.
YURIKO KUBOTA
Kai
Two layer archival pigment print with cut-outs, 2014, 40" x 40" (framed)
Kuu
Two layer archival pigment print with cut-outs, 2014, 25" x 25" (framed)
Yuriko continues exploring her double-layer technique, which involves placing two photographs on top of each other and meticulously cutting thin vertical strips of the top layer to reveal slivers of the image beneath. This merging of two images creates an effect of vibration, where movement and stillness play off each other, and lines between two and three-dimensional space are blurred.
Yuriko studied oil painting at Joshibi University of Art and Design in Tokyo, Japan. Approaching photography as an extension of her painting, she uses it as a tool to study and reconfirm her thoughts as well as record what she feels in her journey through life.
ELIANA MARINARI
Metamorphosis
Pastel, pencil, spray paint and ink on paper mounted on panel, 2019, 16" x 12"
Flower Symphony, NR 7
Pastel, pencil, spray paint and ink on paper mounted on panel, 2019, 12" x 16"
Fade Away, NR 2
Pastel, pencil, spray paint and ink on paper mounted on panel, 2019, 16" x 12"
Eliana began her training in Florence as a scientist, while studying art at the Academy of Florence. She continued her studies in London, where she obtained an interdisciplinary PhD at UCL. She is now based in Geneva, Switzerland, where she continues her quest in bridging the gap between art and science. Her artistic research brushes up against scientific studies by demonstrating the illusory quality of visual perception, which queries the truth of the visible: how the brain stores images, the way it recollects and interprets them.
In 2015, she received the prestigious Swiss National Funding Award for the development of an interdisciplinary project. Her work has been exhibited and is held in private collections in Switzerland, Italy, the UK, and the US. She has been featured by multiple media outlets, including The Jealous Curator and BOOOOOOOM among others.
Maldives Manta Society
Watercolour on paper, 2019, 22" x 30" (framed)
PAUL MORSTAD
Taking inspiration from a wide variety of sources, Paul is an avid bird watcher, musician and traveller. His interests in zoology, geography, history, literature and exploration have led him on many journeys, including canoe expeditions of the canals of northern Europe and walking safaris through the East African savannahs.
Paul has shown his work in Montréal, Paris, Toronto, Seattle, Vancouver, Miami and Portland, Oregon. His work belongs to private collections around the world. He studied visual art and animation at Emily Carr University of Art and Design. When not painting and drawing, Paul can be found on his bike looking for birds, or hanging out with his wife and daughter in Vancouver, BC.
SEAN MUNDY
Sean is a Canadian photographer and digital artist living in Montréal. Primarily self-taught, his work focuses on themes of division, isolation, conflict, collectivism, and individualism, using symbolism and the surreal to probe at these themes. His image-making process is focused on fabricating scenes through a combination of sketching, planning, staging, and shooting, often involving an element of performativity as many images are self-portraits or built up from self-portraits that are then digitally manipulated to create the final image.
Sean has been featured by outlets such as VICE and Juxtapoz, and has shown work in Canada and internationally in cities such as Paris, Hong Kong, Barcelona, Berlin, and Mexico City.
Plunge
Digital photograph, archival print, 2021, 30" x 24" (edition of 10). Also available framed.
DAMIÁN SIQUIEROS
Damián uses art to create positive narratives that seek to heal social and ecological environments through visual storytelling. His work covers a wide range of media including photography, installation, video art, art direction and education. Performance, as a languaged expressed through photography, allows him to address complex issues through emotive and abstract movement.
He has collaborated with talented choreographers such as Sidi Larbi, Margie Gillis, Kyra Jean Green, Andrew Skeels and companies such Danse Danse and Les Grands Ballets de Montréal. Damián has created more than 60 exhibitions in Canada and internationally; notably at the Art Museum of the Americas (Washington, D.C.), the Frost Museum (Miami), the MMCA Goyang Residency (South Korea), and the prestigious Tambaran gallery (New York).
Symbiosis (Terra Sapiens)
Digital photo, printed on Juniper Baryta paper, 2020, 20" x 30" (edition of 5). Also available framed.
Symbiosis (Terra Sapiens)
Digital photo, printed on Moab Baryta paper, 2020, 11" x 16" (edition of 5). Also available framed.
The Gift
Oil on linen, 2021, 24" x 24"
IAN STONE
Ian’s interest and exploration with painting began after his BFA in traditional Printmaking from NSCAD in Halifax, Nova Scotia. With a strong interest in self-portraiture and identity politics, the technical aspect of layering and printing was transferred to a figurative realism. He continued his studies at Concordia University with an MFA in painting and drawing.
His work can be found in numerous private and public collections, including the Florida State University Museum and the National Palace of culture in Sofia, Bulgaria.
RUBEN TOMAS
Ruben is a photographer who works on a level above instinct. His subjects are not people, natural landscapes, or animals. Rather, his subject is the elusive connection between himself and what is going on around him. Inner lives seem to appear along the surfaces of bodies: eyes in partial shade, wet hair giving temporary dimension to a face as it is drying, a mask that shows more than it hides...
Swamp
Photograph, digital print on Hannemühle Photo matte 308 g, 2019, 16" x 12" (edition of 1), 24" x 17" (edition of 1), 40" x 29" (edition of 1). Also available framed.
Immersed
Photograph, digital print on Hannemühle Photo matte 308 g, 2017, 16" x 13" (edition of 1), 24" x 20" (edition of 1), 40" x 32" (edition of 1). Also available framed.
Born in Valencia, Spain, Ruben’s artistic journey has spanned five countries and four languages. His professional career has taken a similar adventure through acting and modelling... His work is internationally recognized and has been featured in exhibitions in Los Angeles, Brussels, and Antwerp. His fashion photography has appeared in L’Officiel Hommes, Elle, Refinery29, Behind the Blinds, The Ones 2 Watch, Schon Magazine, Fucking Young, Tendencias Magazine, and the Word Magazine, among others.
SHEN WEI
Born and raised in Shanghai, Shen is now based in New York City. He is known for his intimate portraits of others and himself, as well as his poetic landscape and still-life photography. He holds an MFA in photography, video, and related media from the School of Visual Arts, New York; and a BFA in photography from Minneapolis College of Art and Design. He is a recipient of the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Arts Residency, the Asian Cultural Council Arts & Religion Fellowship, the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Arts Grant.
Bridge
Photograph, c-print on Fuji professional crystal archive paper, 2015, 30” x 45” (edition of 5). Also available framed.
Lotus
Photograph, c-print on Fuji professional crystal archive paper, 2012, 20” x 30” (edition of 5), 30” x 45” (edition of 3). Also available framed.
Earthly
Photograph, c-print on Fuji professional crystal archive paper, 2012, 20” x 30” (edition of 5), 30” x 45” (edition of 3). Also available framed.
Shen has exhibited internationally and his work has been featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, The New Yorker, Financial Times, Aperture, ARTnews, Paris Review, Le Figaro, and American Photo. His work is included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Photography, the Library of Congress, the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Morgan Library & Museum, CAFA Art Museum, and the Ringling Museum of Art, among others.
Video by rararacquiao
Photos from the opening night by Eva Blue, Danika Zandboer and Corentin Mainix.
