About

Kay Yoon ( * 1994 Seoul, Korea, lives and works in Munich and Seoul )

Working within the spectral realms among cultural memory, technological mediation, and embodied ritual, Kay Yoon's practice emerges from the emotional terrain of displacement and cultural crossing. Her work traces how the inherited structures of traditions and modernity persist and evolve across temporal and geographical boundaries through personal family narratives and systemic social forces—approaching tradition as spectral matter that haunts and animates contemporary life.

Yoon linguifies the boundaries of urban alienation, fragmented identity, and untranslatable emotions, transforming these liminal conditions into "sonic thinking" that transcends personal experience to challenge social ideologies.

By incorporating traditional ceremonial objects alongside industrial materials, she creates spaces where mechanical elements take on ritual significance, and traditional objects reveal unexpected resonances with modern living. At the intersection of traditional pansori[1] rhythms, shamanic performativity, contemporary music's dissonances, and everyday materials—dining tables, utensils, fabric—she excavates forms of ritual newly emerging as contemporary landscapes. She translates emotions that cannot be captured in a single language into new sensory languages through vibration, sound, and bodily performance, deliberately dismantling the dualistic notion of material and immaterial.

Currently researching the concept of "politics of digestion (notes on instrumental bodies and domestic performance)," she explores the difference between "swallowing" and "being swallowed," the gap between passive consumption and active transformation. Based on her Detroit residency experience, she analyzes post-industrial ruins and care practices through "resistant digestion," examining how survival and creation can become communal practices against systems of abandonment.

Recently, she participated in group exhibitions at Jeonnam Museum of Art and Leipzig's Bistro 21, and exhibited internationally, including solo exhibitions in Berlin, Munich, and Lucerne. Currently a scholarship recipient from the Bavarian State Ministry of Education, Science and Arts, she continues her work through residencies at Nars Foundation in New York.

[1] Pansori is a Korean traditional narrative performance art combining storytelling, vocal techniques, and rhythmic accompaniment.

Education

2020 - 2023 Study at Academy of Fine Art, München, Prof. Alexandra Bircken
2018 - 2020 Study at Academy of Fine Art, Nürnberg, Prof. Michael Sailstorfer
2018 - 2020 Study at Academy of Fine Art, Leipzig, Prof. Joachim Blank
2016 - 2018 Study at Academy of Fine Art, Nürnberg, Prof. Ottmar Hörl
2013 - 2015 Study at Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul

Stipends / Awards

2024 USA Scholarship, Bayerisches Staatministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst
2023 Project Funding, Erwin und Giesla von Steiner Stiftung
2023 Catalog Funding, LfA Förderbank Bayern
2023 Debutant Promotion Award, Bayerisches Staatministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst
2022 Project Funding, Akademieverein, München
2022 Deutschlandstipendium, Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung
2020 Kunstkalender, LfA Förderbank Bayern
2019 Project Scholarship, Freunde der Akademie der Bildenden Künste Nürnberg e.V.
2018 Class Prize, Akademie der Bildenden Künste Nürnberg

Residency

2025 NARS Foundation, New York City, USA
2025 Popps Packing, Detroit, USA
2024 K.A.I.R Artist in Residence, Košice, SK

Solo/Duo Exhibitions

2024 Of Hungry Ghosts, Housewives, and Untold Stories - Metalhouse Gallery, Yangpyeong, KR
2023 Bone On Bone Echoing, Sauers Berlin, DE
2022 A Smooth Exit From Eternal Inflation, SOMA 300, Berlin, DE
   Borderless Breath, Between Commas, Some Space, München, DE
2021 Play, Touch, Grip -sic! Elephanthouse, Lucerne, CH
    Paratexual Skin - Projektort 4D des BBK LEIPZIG e.V. Leipzig, DE
2019 The Piece Of Sculpt You Left In The Playground - HGB, Leipzig, DE
2018    Elsewhere is My Where, Akademie Galerie, Nürnberg, DE
Stay Anonymous! - PrimaKunst, Stadtgalerie, Kiel, DE
2017    Room: Digital Materiality 101 - CICA Museum, Kimpo, KR
Suche Eingeben - Vitrine am Hauptbahnhof Nürnberg, DE

Group Exhibitions

2025 Kocking Where a Door Once Stood, Jeonnam Museum of Art, Gwangyang, KR
Fabulative Lore - Bistro 21, Leipzig, DE
2024     Chliorophyllic Chorus - Council+, Berlin, DE
             Spiritual World - Rainrain Gallery, New York City, USA
           A Little Bit of Solidarity Goes A Long Way - Zirka Space, Munich, DE
             MOUVEMENT 1 - System D, Malakoff, Paris, FR
2023    Made in Munich - Pasinger Fabrik, Munich, DE
On Listening - Lothringer Halle 13, Munich, DE
Tacker - Galerie der Künstler, Munich, DE
Fragrant Tissues - Beacon Art Space, Munich, DE
2022 Where An Eagle Meets Fish - Nokwoo Art and Culture Foundation, KR
Herbstball - Pavillon Ismaning, DE
installation - inter.pblc, Copenhagen, DK
Hollow Shells, Shallow Holes - Circolo, Lia Mostra d’Ert, St. Ulrich / Urtijëi, IT
All That is Solid Melts into Air - Springbraettet 6a, Copenhagen, DK
Liminal Bridges - Trauma Bar Und Kino, Berlin, DE
Januar - Goldberg Galerie, Munich, DE
2021    Rituale - Projektraum 145, Berlin, DE
Vis a Vis - Gallery Baturina, Leipzig, DE
Wild Hair : dissident hair practices - Apthk Lab, Wuppertal, DE
To be successful in hunting, Think like a prey- Kunstpavillon Munich, DE
Seasonal Black - Werkschauhalle, Leipzig, DE
2020 Eine Letzte Sache Noch - Alte Handelschule, Leipzig, DE
Bodyscan, Körper der Gesellschaft - Burg in Tittmonig, DE
Windwo Display - Fonda, Leipzig, DE
Der River - curated by Michael Sailstorfer, Anselm Reyle, Gregor
Hildebrandt, Halle 14, Baumwollspinnerei, Leipzig, DE
2019    We All Should Be Lichens - AO Kunsthalle, Leipzig, DE
Rroooaaarr! - Tiergarten Nuremberg, DE
Human Particles Of The Living Sun - The Art Foundation, Athens, GR
Backup - Projektraum KA, Leipzig, DE
Art Teleported - CICA Museum, New York, US
2018    It’s Just A Matter Of Utility - Lindenauer Hafen, Leipzig, DE
2017      Best Of - AEG Halle, Nuremberg, DE

Press

2024 interview at Saliva Live
Solo Exhibition: Of Hungry Ghosts, Housewives, and Untold Stories, Yangpyeong, South Korea
at Fakewhale
    at Saliva Live
    at Kubaparis
Group Exhibition: Spiritual World, NYC
at Art Spiel
at Daily Lazy
at cultbytes
2024 Group Exhibition: MOUVEMENT 1, Paris, at Art Critique
2023 Solo Exhibition: Bone On Bone Echoing, Berlin, at Kubaparis
2023 Group Exhibition: Debutant Exhibition, Munich, at Süddeutsche Zeitung
2023 Group Exhibition: Fragrant Tissues, Beacon Art Gallery,
at Tzvetnik
at Kubaparis
2022 Group Exhibition: Where An Eagle Meets Fish, Nokwoodang Culture And Arts Foundation at Haenam Local Newspaper
at Kubaparis
at Ofluxo
2022 Group Exhibition: Herbstball, Galerie Ismaning, at Gallerytalk
2022 Group Exhibition: intallation, Copenhagen Fashion Week, at hypebae
2022 Solo Exhibition: A Smooth Exit From Eternal Inflation
   at Ofluxo
   at PASSE-AVANT
at Kubaparis
2022 Group Exhibition: To the Land II, at Kubaparis
2022 Group Exhibition: Hollow Shells, Shallow Holes
at Kubaparis
at La Usc Di Ladins
2022 Solo Exhibition: Borderless Breath, Between Commas at Kubaparis
2022 Group Exhibition: Liminal Bridges at AQNB
2021 Duo Exhibition: Rituale at Kubaparis
2021 Interview at Vasistas Magazine
2021 Solo Exhibition: Play, Touch, Grip Contemporary Art Pool
2020 Work: Sculpt Quarttete, Raumwww
2020 Group Exhibition: bodyscan, Körper der Gesellschaft, Chiemgau Zeitung
2020 Work: Playframe for Transcendental Bodies at Rundgan io
2020 Group Exhibition: We All Should Be Lichens, Leipziger Volkszeitung
2020 LfA Förderbank Bayern Kunstkalender

KAY YOON