February 13–March 13, 2021
Steve Turner is pleased to present Body Double, a solo exhibition by Jersey City-based Mark Yang which features paintings that he created during the last year, some during his final months in Columbia’s MFA program prior to Covid and the rest after the shutdown. Yang’s painting practice is rooted in his desire to incorporate formal concerns relating to color, line and composition while addressing his identity as an immigrant, a Korean-American and a man. The earlier paintings depict two nude Asian men wrestling. Over the course of 2020, his palette blossomed with bolder color while his figures became more ambiguous–the specificity of racial identity receded. He added more figures to the compositions making his scenes a choreography of impossible body configurations rather than one arising from a specific wrestling maneuver. By the end of the year he zoomed in on the bodies to such an extent that the figures’ heads were outside the picture frame. In depicting nude male bodies in close proximity–wrestling, grappling and contorting–Yang aims to convey an aspect of male intimacy that is more common in Korean culture than in American culture. In doing so, he connects his work to art historical forbearers–Greek vessels, Eakins, Muybridge, Bacon and Mapplethorpe. While there are many categories within identity-based contemporary art, the one irreducible category is the body. Despite differences of ethnicity, nationality, belief, gender and sexual orientation, everyone has a body. Starting with this basic understanding, Yang adds his vision of the male body to the history of art. Mark Yang (born 1994, Seoul, South Korea) immigrated to Los Angeles with his family when he was nine years old. He earned his BFA from Art Center College of Design (2017) and his MFA from Columbia University (2020). Recent group exhibitions include those at Steve Turner, Los Angeles (2020); Thierry Goldberg Gallery, New York (2020); CP Projects Space, New York (2019) and Ki Smith Gallery, New York (2019). Body Double is Yang’s first solo exhibition. Mark Yang creates paintings that incorporate formal concerns relating to color, line and composition while addressing his identity as an immigrant, a Korean-American and a man. In general, his works depict nude Asian men wrestling. In depicting nude male bodies in close proximity–wrestling, grappling and contorting–Yang aims to convey an aspect of male intimacy that is more common in Korean culture than in American culture. In doing so, he connects his work to art historical forbearers–Greek vessels, Eakins, Muybridge, Bacon and Mapplethorpe. While there are many categories within identity-based contemporary art, the one irreducible category is the body. Despite differences of ethnicity, nationality, belief, gender and sexual orientation, everyone has a body. Starting with this basic understanding, Yang adds his vision of the male body to the history of art. Born 1994, Seoul, South Korea Education 2017 Solo Exhibitions Group Exhibitions 2019 2017 Grants and Awards 2018 2015 Bibliography
Lives and works in New York
2020
MFA, Columbia University, New York
BFA, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, California
2021
Body Double, Steve Turner, Los Angeles
2020
Our World, Steve Turner, Los Angeles
Alone Together, Steve Turner, Los Angeles
2020, Thierry Goldberg Gallery, New York
Dear America, CP Projects Space, New York
Whams of Summer, Ki Smith Gallery, New York
Aesthetically Functional Only, Edsel William/The Fireplace Project, New York
Columbia University MFA First-Year Exhibition, Wallach Art Gallery, New York
Fun Sized, Lemon Space Gallery, Los Angeles
2019
Brevoort-Eickemeyer Fellowship
Andrew Fisher Fellowship, New York
Columbia University Visiting Artist Lecture Series Fellowship
Columbia University Visual Arts Scholarship
Art Center College of Design Merit Scholarship
2020
Sheets, Hilarie M. “Newly Minted Artists, Facing a Precarious Future, Take Action,” The New York Times, May 19
