Jayoung Yoon

Jayoung Yoon (; born 1979) is a South Korean artist whose primary medium is human hair. Her work includes sculpture, performance, video, and two-dimensional works, and draws on Christian and Buddhist philosophy, and Korean cultural traditions. She received the Joan Mitchell Fellowship in 2023 and has been exhibited internationally in the United States, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands. Yoon lives and works in Beacon, New York.

Early life and education Yoon was born and raised in Seoul, South Korea. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Master of Fine Arts from Hongik University in Korea and moved to the United States in 2006. The resulting structures move with changes in airflow.

Sculpture

Web of Life (2015–2017), nine feet in diameter, is composed of hand-made knots using hair from immediate and extended family members. The Form and Emptiness series (2015–2017) consists of woven mesh boxes hung from the ceiling, each containing a geometric shape at its center, all woven from strands of human hair. The Skull (2016), made from hair and glue, reflects on mortality and life cycles; according to the artist, "The skull represents the cycles of life and death and the transparent feeling of the hair sculpture represents temporality..." Offering Bowl #7 (2022) incorporates hair collected from her mother. Listen to the Mind I (2009) condensed ten hours of footage into a timelapse 9 minute video in which Yoon lies still with a hair funnel extending from her ear, while exposed to the changing sunlight throughout a day. Umbicality (2012) uses hair to connect the body to open air and sky. In 2012, she presented Clearing the Mind, a performance at Deep Tanks gallery, Staten Island.

Recognition In 2025, Yoon was selected for a residency at the Museum of Arts and Design in Manhattan. The Poughkeepsie Journal noted that one piece stopped nearly every visitor for extended consideration. Alex Moore, writing in the Paris Review, described Yoon's practice as sitting at the point where asceticism and aesthetics meet. Joan Mitchell Fellowship (2023) AHL Foundation Artist Fellowship (2020) MacDowell Fellowship (2018) Ora Schneider Regional Residency Grant (2017) The Bronx Museum AIM Fellowship (2016) The Franklin Furnace Fund for Performance Art (2010)

Selected artist residencies Museum of Arts and Design's Artist Studios program (2025-2026) Millay Arts, Austerlitz, New York (2019) MacDowell, Peterborough, New Hampshire (2018) Saltonstall Foundation Artist-in-Residence, Ithaca, New York (2017) I-Park Foundation Artist-in-Residence, East Haddam, Connecticut (2013) Sculpture Space, Utica, New York (2011) Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Madison, Maine (2009)

Selected exhibitions Yoon's work has been exhibited in numerous solo and group shows at museums, galleries, and art institutions across the United States and internationally. Sowing Seeds of Emptiness, Garrison Art Center, Garrison, New York (2022) Ephemerality, Theo Ganz Studio, Beacon, New York (2016) Shaping Identity: Korean Print in Diaspora, Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta, Georgia (2025) Intersections & Diversions, Strohl Art Center, Chautauqua, New York (2025) Don't Touch My Hair, Hannah Traore Gallery, New York, New York (2024) Interlacement, The Korea Society, New York, New York (2021) The Day After, Culture House, Washington, D.C. (2021) Hair: Textures of Belonging, Studio 3 Gallery, University of Kent, Canterbury, United Kingdom (2020) Materialized, Hampden Gallery, UMass Amherst, Massachusetts (2019) Fiberart International 2019, Contemporary Craft, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (2019) Hand/Eye, Form & Concept, Santa Fe, New Mexico (2018) Sutures, Marc Straus, New York, New York (2018) Multilayered: New Prints 2018/Summer, Print Center New York, New York (2018) The ArtsWestchester 2018 Triennial, ArtsWestchester, White Plains, New York (2018) Bronx Calling: The Fourth AIM Biennial, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York, New York (2018) Portal Art Fair, Federal Hall, New York, New York (2016) The 11th Busan International Video Art Festival, Busan, Korea (2014) East and West: Asian Influence on Contemporary American Craft, Ohio Craft Museum, Columbus, OH (2013) Sacred Vision, Separate Views, Tibet House US, New York, New York (2012) Show me your hair, Coreana Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea (2011) Hair Tactic,'' Jersey City Museum, Jersey City, New Jersey (2010)

Collections Richardson Family Art Museum, Wofford College, Spartanburg, South Carolina Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, Nebraska City, Nebraska