Art News

100 Voices, 100 Artists — Yurim Gough

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, which gave American women the right to vote. Despite having fought and won to have a voice in American democracy, women still face blatant inequality in the art world.

In 2019, it was reported that in the last ten years, women artists represent a meager 2% of all auction sales. According to the Public Library of Science, 87% of the works in 18 prominent art museums in the US were done by men. A joint study conducted by artnet Analytics and Maastricht University found that just 13.7% of living artists represented in galleries in Europe and North America are women.

Like the vote, art is a powerful means of expressing one’s voice and vision. In recognition of this landmark centennial, and in the spirit of correcting the gender imbalance in the arts, Saatchi Art is celebrating 100 of our most talented women artists for Women’s History Month. We have highlighted 8 artists from our 100 Voices, 100 Artists campaign and hope you love their message and art as much as we do.

“In Asian culture bowls are philosophically connected with humanity: in Korea we talk about how big is the “bowl” in your mind as it’s believed that the bowl is where someone’s knowledge and experience resides. My bowls are hand moulded and I draw straight onto them, with no preliminary sketches. Drawing directly on them having a real person in front of me and I transpose the energy from the model into the artwork.” — Yurim Gough

With a style inspired by expressionists including Egon Schiele, Korean artist Yurim Gough works with live models in her studio sessions. Drawing directly onto the surfaces of hand-formed ceramic bowls, Yurim captures an initial figurative gesture before the soft clay is fired in the kiln. In a collage of metallics, color and patterned papers, the artist layers, fires and glazes repetitively, filling each bowl to capture the energy and narrative of her subjects. In 2017, Yurim was a Visual Open Art Finalist, and participated in the Flux Exhibition at the Chelsea College of Arts and the Royal West of England Academy Exhibition. In 2016 and 2015 she exhibited at The Other Art Fair, London.

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