Samantha Yun Wallâs new paintings use overlapping silhouettes of female figures as portals to unknown spaces and different temporal realms. Impetus for the new body of work is a Korean folk tale in which the Pasque flower is symbolic of a grandmother who passed away without the loving care of her grandchildren. It is a story of melancholy, loss, and remembrance. The delicate hair on the flowerâs stem differentiates it, and the artist gives the plant a surreal aspect in some of her paintings, replacing the flowerâs center with a watchful eye.
Yun Wall has long been interested in the personal narratives of people born to Asian women and US service members during times of military occupation in Asia. The artist is mindful of the fact that these Amerasian children are stigmatized and Black Amerasians even more so. Examining cultural taboos that perpetuate secrecy and silence, she presents her figures alternately as invisible and hypervisible in stark black and white.
In past work, Yun Wall drew on ghosts, monsters, healers, and storytellersâfrom Korean folklore as well as science fictionâto deconstruct and reframe the stories of outcasts in dynamic compositions. While her interest in these figures continues, her new paintings and drawings have a probing and introspective quality. Wallâs silhouettes puncture time and space, allude to past and present, and point to what remains unsaid or unknown.
Samantha Yun Wall (b. 1977, Seoul) is the 2024 Betty Bowen Award winner. Established in 1977 to honor the legacy of Betty Bowenâan enthusiastic supporter of Northwest contemporary artâthe annual award celebrates a Northwest artist for their original, exceptional, and compelling work.