Barns Series VI
Artist
Y.J. Cho
(Taiwanese, born 1950)
Date1989
MediumAcrylic on linen
Dimensions32 × 48 in. (81.3 × 121.9 cm)
ClassificationsPainting
Object numberUAC2672
DescriptionBarns Series VI is a highly detailed painting of the side of barn in Y.J. Cho’s signature photorealistic style. Similar in technique to the work of Chuck Close, the artist credited with starting the movement of Photorealism in the 1970’s, Cho twists this medium from simply being an illusion in paint to an interesting visual experience. In Barns Series VI, the scene is simple on the surface, the side of a barn that has become old and weathered, windows boarded up and broken and paint peeling from water and sunlight. Around the left edge some tree branches are visibly encroaching on the wood. Stamped over the middle is the immense shadow of a tree, cast from behind the viewer. The way that the natural elements loom from out of sight into the scene of a simple building wall gives a sense of nature’s reclamation, the process that has already started with the weathering and the inevitability that the encroaching plants embody.
Y.J. Cho is a taiwanese artist who works primarily in Hong Kong. Known for her style of photorealism and interest in otherwise mundane subject matter. In her latest series of paintings from 2020 and 2021, her signature water stain on the canvas has been placed over scenes of the clouds over Hong Kong to give the scenes a truly atmospheric effect.Cho Yeou Jui earned her BFA from National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei and later studied in the USA earning a MA from the State University of New York in Albany. Her work is included in Museums and collections in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the United States.
Written by Alex Heath
