There’s a mysterious force at work in the art of Rimi Yang. It derives from her intense curiosity about the world, her enthusiastic and wholehearted absorption of its symbols, history, and cultural means of artistic expression. She translates this mélange of influences into incandescent bursts of color and design, intuitively blending and reshaping them into fresh, multi-textured compositions that intrigue viewers and spark imaginations.
Yang’s unique background has imprinted her with a remarkable understanding of both Asian and Western artistic sensibilities. An ethnic Korean born and raised in Osaka, Japan, she was exposed early on to the traditional fundamentals of Japanese and Chinese art and encouraged by the contemporary influences of her teachers there to press beyond restrictive boundaries. She came to the United States in 1986 and studied at Bowling Green University and then relocated to Los Angeles in 1991, where she studied at California State University, the Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Art, and the Otis College of Art and Design. A summer in Italy studying at the Florence Academy of Art further infused her paintings with refinement and global iconography.
Recently, Yang became fascinated with patterns used in Japanese porcelain. As with each new interest, her compositions become fields for exploration and discovery. Central feminine figures with wide-eyed gazes or sweet child-like smiles often appear, elaborately costumed, and frequently on horseback, immersed in dense swirls of emblems and motifs. Marks, drips, and vibrant passages of impasto and scraping all dance across her canvases, creating fairytale-like atmospheres, a dialogue between worlds. Their international appeal has garnered her global recognition.
Rimi Yang is a master artist who uses her craftsmanship to communicate her lively engagement with the world around her. Her paintings are filled with the velocity of those connections, of a mind never at rest but intensely devoted to beauty and joy.
