If a person glitched like a computer window: Inside Younguk Yi's supremely weird paintings

"It's been found that the human brain detects faces 90-130 milliseconds after looking at an object that could slightly resemble a face - it's called face pareidolia. Of course, our eyes are trained to recognise faces in unfamiliar environments because we look at faces all day long. But this is certainly not Younguk Yi 's goal, instead the Seoul-based artist's most productive state is playing in disorientation - which might be an understatement for his eye-vibrating artworks."

"Younguk's kaleido-collage drawings are inspired by cities - aging buildings, collapsing alleys and unfinished concrete frames that reveal social memories, time sedimentation and latent fractures. This is then translated into exploded figurative artworks that rib bodies with ripples of contours and faces with galleries of eyes. His paintings look as if a person glitched like a computer window, frantically replicating itself in rows of fleshy chaos - or if a painting fell down the stairs, rearranging everything within its frame."

Human facial detection occurs within 90-130 milliseconds through face pareidolia, and visual habituation trains eyes to recognise faces constantly. Younguk Yi deliberately exploits perceptual instability, seeking moments when perception wobbles and the body becomes aware of viewing. Cityscapes—aging buildings, collapsing alleys and unfinished concrete frames—provide material that translates into exploded figurative works. Paintings ripple with contouring bodies and galleries of eyes, evoking glitch-like replication and fleshy chaos. Figures refuse singular readability as bodies negotiate altered postures and relocated limbs, suggesting uncanny, contortionist forms. Architectural failures and social ruptures inform these works, rendering structural history into colliding, reorganised anatomies.

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