From June 15 to September 5, SLOW Galerie will be exhibiting the work of South Korean artist Seula Yi. Featuring a series of original watercolors inspired by the artist's solitary wanderings in the capital, the "Lost in Paris" exhibition closes the 2-month residency of this young artist, an emblematic figure of illustration in her country, and one of the most gifted of her generation.
In this very personal, almost autobiographical exhibition, like an illustrated logbook, Seula transposes the melancholy that we sometimes feel when we travel alone, far from our loved ones and our landmarks. Accustomed to staying and wandering mainly in big cities, Seula travels a lot: NY, London, Paris... often alone, she wanders by day and paints by night.
In Paris, where she has often visited, the artist once again felt out of place, a little lost: "I'm 9,000 kms from home, and yet I feel even further away. I've chosen this destination, I've waited for this moment, I'm here and yet I don't feel like I've arrived, I feel like a stranger everywhere, all the time (...) Some things in this world are inaccessible, that's what makes them eternal. I could walk endlessly, and still get nowhere."
We can't help but think of Sofia Coppola's film Lost in Translation, which resonates throughout Seula's drawings and is one of her favorite films.
A secretive and sensitive artist, fragile and strong at the same time, Seula Yi is also a symbol of this new generation of women who are throwing themselves into the life of an artist with great freedom, forging bonds of trust over the years all over the world, in particular with LA SLOW Galerie, which has supported her work and development in France for many years.
This exhibition focuses on one of Seula's favorite themes: cities. With a delicate, poetic style based on a singular use of highly textured watercolor, she sublimates architecture with vertiginous perspectives and her signature play of light and shadow. "Lost in Paris" is also a magnificent tribute to Paris: she draws it from an intimate point of view, by day and by night, with its alleys, districts and buildings. Her drawings are inhabited by tiny characters lost in a city that's too big, but the artist also draws inspiration from emblematic places - the banks of the Seine, a few parks and gardens, Le Luxembourg, the Tuileries... to add a little green to the artist's blues.
All the artworks of the exhibition are HERE.