Anat Ebgi is pleased to showcase Lunch at Sunset, a solo exhibition of new work by Korean American artist Justin Yoon on view at 6150 Wilshire Blvd, through August 20. This is the artist’s first solo exhibition in Los Angeles.
Lunch at Sunset consists of six paintings made by Yoon during the first half of this year, following his debut with the gallery last summer in the group show It’s Much Louder Than Before, which explored various communities and aesthetics of queer nightlife.
Through ongoing episodic depictions of three queer, Asian heroes—‘Marge the Space Queen,’ ‘Blue Dream,’ and’ Fivepound’z,’ the Shih Tzu, Yoon’s neon idols satirize and invert staged depictions of heteronormativity in popular media. He is interested in exploring a queerness not tied to sex, rather the trio shares a platonic intimacy through his high camp capture of scenes from ordinary life. Whether they are viewing television, going out to dinner, or taking in the sunset, each painting suggests a cohesive, but never-ending narrative like a tv sitcom. There is a tongue-in-cheek irony to these characters and their ‘costuming,’ Blue Dream always appears oiled up in tiny briefs like a go-go dancer and Marge wears a gown regardless of the occasion.
Reappropriating 1950/70s Hollywood tropes from fashion to interiors, Yoon blends them with his own early childhood memories of American junk food, late-night movies on TV, and listening to jazz during long family drives. He transforms these memories into a world of nostalgia and over-the-top plastic glamor. Unified by their playful vaporwave palette, washes of pink and blue acrylic, gouaches, and glitter seduce us into Yoon’s world of solidarity and friendship.
