Love Me

30”x24” acrylic, oil on canvas. Jun’s work seeks to evoke emotions through his use of space and colors. Jun’s art speaks to viewers across cultures and continents in a unique way, transcending the need for common language. Each piece is incomplete until the viewers contribute their own contexts to the artistic conversation.
As creator and muse of his work, Jun Yang's paintings question his place in the world and how people perceive him. After moving to the United States from Seoul, Korea twelve years ago, Jun feels both accepted and protected living in the US, empowered to embrace fully who he is as a queer Asian immigrant artist and his own unique story of trauma, isolation and healing.
Jun is learning, unlearning and relearning practices as a self-taught artist that limit his own creative expression, challenging rules set by a heteronormative art world and society. His paintings are soulful portraits in unexpected colors. He combines flora and fauna with paper collage and techniques to build up the surface of human skin tones and textures. Striking self portraits use bold scale mixed with delicate layering, this tension creates experiences both joyful and contemplative.
Self-expression is Jun’s power and strength. His art not only fights against judgmental perspectives and exclusionary norms, but his paintings are also love letters to the LGBTQIA+ and immigrant communities and himself. Jun believes beyond all current limitations, art can still send love to find a safe place where one can hold themselves tightly and express themselves freely.