Sohyun Woo (b. 2003, South Korea) is a semi-abstract expressionist painter exploring forgotten memories through layered acrylic compositions. With her intuitive process and experimental approach, Woo transforms the painting experience into a time for contemplation. Since immigrating to Canada in 2014, Woo felt the disconnect with the past and Woo has been working on a series of paintings of flowers as a way of accessing her disconnected memories. Using an ordinary object in her life, flowers, as a mode of transportation through her subtle memories, the work has a focus on texture, dimension, and motion trying to reconnect with her past.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

How many of the things you love can you truly explain? I am Sohyun Woo (b. 2003, South Korea), a semi-abstract expressionist painter working in acrylics and oil paints. For me, there are far more that I cannot – and flowers are one of them.
Since immigrating to Canada in 2014, I've grappled with a sense of disconnect from my past. My art is a response to this feeling, an introspective practice through which I explore forgotten memories. I use flowers, an ordinary element that has been part of my whole life, as a vessel to travel through memory. I embrace an intuitive process, layering semi-abstract forms with unconventional tools to further investigate the multifaceted nature of memory.
Through the accumulation of petals, I explore this enduring fascination with floral imagery, a love that seems to predate my earliest memories emphasizing texture, dimension, and a sense of motion. Driven by curiosity, I allow the painting process to be spontaneous, mirroring the way memories surface – fragmented, blurred, yet punctuated by moments of clarity. My goal is to capture and preserve these fleeting memories on canvas.