artist biography
Juliette Yu-Ming is a young Eurasian artist born in Singapore. Her French father and Malaysian mother instilled in her a strong openness to cultural diversity, curiosity about different ways of life and exposure to both Western and Asian art and culture. Her Southeast Asian upbringing meant she was always surrounded by colourful traditions and rich tropical identities which have influenced her work.
She has a Bachelor’s degree in Cultural Anthropology from Tufts University in Boston and a Master’s in Anthropology and Development from the London School of Economics. Her career began in humanitarian and development work in NGOs in the US, UK and Indonesia and at an intergovernmental organization in Argentina. She painted in her free time and considers herself a self-taught painter. She has always enjoyed experimenting with new techniques, materials and mediums. Since 2011, she decided to dedicate herself professionally to her painting and she is currently attending the highly-acclaimed Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage in Rio de Janeiro, where she is expanding her repertoire of techniques to incorporate into her paintings and engaging with the Brazilian contemporary art scene.
Her influences are many. As she began to paint, she was first exposed to Southeast Asian art, through her extensive travels in Asia – Buddhist mandalas in Tibet, Nepal and Bhutan, female goddesses, apsaras and Ramayana and Mahabarata carvings on temple walls in Burma, Cambodia, Thailand and India, ceremonial masks and wayang kulit in Indonesia and the bright and elaborate peranakan designs in Singapore and Malaysia. These are some of the elements that have fed and continue to feed the waters of her cultural and artistic identity.
Another influential moment in her life was the time she spent studying anthropology in Cuba. There, she was immediately struck and deeply attracted to Afro-Cuban culture. She studied Santería, the predominant Afro-Cuban syncretic religion and was inspired by its mythology and mystic symbolism. She also discovered the work of Wifredo Lam, the Cuban painter of African and Chinese descent, and immediately identified with his life and work characterized by polymorphic abstract figures that combine human, animal and vegetal elements. Her interest in African diasporic communities has continued in Brazil where she continues to learn about cultural forms of African descent, such as samba and candomblé.
She has also been profoundly impacted by her contact with indigenous South and North American cultures, in particular their worldviews which revolve around a deep understanding of nature. The place of man within the natural world is a pervading theme in her work. She believes that man has strayed too far from a harmonious relationship with nature which is leading to profound psychological and spiritual troubles and that much can be learnt from these more traditional cultures. Her commitment to anthropology remains at the core of her being and her search for a deep understanding of the nature of man across cultures. Her painting represents that sought-after balance and true symbiosis of man with nature as one possible answer to man’s universal search for spirituality.
Though she does not believe in the notion of the “primitive” as it is implicitly ascribed to non-western tribal societies in the term “primitivism”, she does have an interest in the art produced by the movement because she herself is deeply inspired by the raw power, simplicity and asbtract symbolic nature of indigenous artforms. This has led her to study about African, Asian and Native North American masks and totems, the myths that surround them and how objects are used in the context of ritual to access the spiritual plane. To her, masks have the power to hybridize – create part human, part animal figures – and to transcend the individual by representing the universal. This is why she often paints mask-like faces on her figures.
Throughout her life, she has been greatly inspired by expressionist painters such as Henri Matisse, Marc Chagall, Paul Gauguin, Francis Bacon, Odilon Redon, to name a few. Interestingly, these artists also worked expressionistically with human and animal forms. She also has a deep admiration for abstract expressionist painters such as Chu Teh Chun, Zao Wou Ki and Mark Rothko for his spiritual intent to capture basic human emotions.
Juliette is also compelled to view her painting as action, in the sense of Jackson Pollock; for her, the process or the act of creation is equally important as the final result. The work of Franz Kline and Norman Bluhm are of particular resonance to her. She often paints on the floor, dripping paint and letting paint wash over the canvas as she tilts it. She alternates between carefully painting on layer by layer and scraping or sanding off layers of paint.
While working in Argentina, she discovered the work of Xul Solar and identified with his penchant for eastern philosophy and tribal art, as well as the “Otra Figuración” movement painters Luis Felipe Noé and Ernesto Deira whose expressionistically deformed bodies captured her imagination, and later, Brazilian painters such as Emiliano Di Cavalcanti, Bernardo Cid, Carybé and in particular the expressionist Iberê Camargo.
Of late, she has returned to her roots with a renewed affection for Asian simplicity, like that found in chinese calligraphy and zen Buddhism. The works of Gu Gan and the modernist movement of calligraphic paintings have inspired her to dip her paintbrushes into black ink.
Throughout her adult years, Juliette has also been a keen dancer and her experience in contemporary and Butoh dance has undoubtedly informed her painting - the female body in movement being a central theme in her work. She is also interested in the intersection between painting, dancing and filmmaking, and has carried out two experimental videodance art pieces which are being screened in Singapore and Brazil. She is also studying filmmaking in Rio de Janeiro, in order to further explore the possibilities of video in art and has worked as a performer-painter, dancer and actress in various short films.
She has a Bachelor’s degree in Cultural Anthropology from Tufts University in Boston and a Master’s in Anthropology and Development from the London School of Economics. Her career began in humanitarian and development work in NGOs in the US, UK and Indonesia and at an intergovernmental organization in Argentina. She painted in her free time and considers herself a self-taught painter. She has always enjoyed experimenting with new techniques, materials and mediums. Since 2011, she decided to dedicate herself professionally to her painting and she is currently attending the highly-acclaimed Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage in Rio de Janeiro, where she is expanding her repertoire of techniques to incorporate into her paintings and engaging with the Brazilian contemporary art scene.
Her influences are many. As she began to paint, she was first exposed to Southeast Asian art, through her extensive travels in Asia – Buddhist mandalas in Tibet, Nepal and Bhutan, female goddesses, apsaras and Ramayana and Mahabarata carvings on temple walls in Burma, Cambodia, Thailand and India, ceremonial masks and wayang kulit in Indonesia and the bright and elaborate peranakan designs in Singapore and Malaysia. These are some of the elements that have fed and continue to feed the waters of her cultural and artistic identity.
Another influential moment in her life was the time she spent studying anthropology in Cuba. There, she was immediately struck and deeply attracted to Afro-Cuban culture. She studied Santería, the predominant Afro-Cuban syncretic religion and was inspired by its mythology and mystic symbolism. She also discovered the work of Wifredo Lam, the Cuban painter of African and Chinese descent, and immediately identified with his life and work characterized by polymorphic abstract figures that combine human, animal and vegetal elements. Her interest in African diasporic communities has continued in Brazil where she continues to learn about cultural forms of African descent, such as samba and candomblé.
She has also been profoundly impacted by her contact with indigenous South and North American cultures, in particular their worldviews which revolve around a deep understanding of nature. The place of man within the natural world is a pervading theme in her work. She believes that man has strayed too far from a harmonious relationship with nature which is leading to profound psychological and spiritual troubles and that much can be learnt from these more traditional cultures. Her commitment to anthropology remains at the core of her being and her search for a deep understanding of the nature of man across cultures. Her painting represents that sought-after balance and true symbiosis of man with nature as one possible answer to man’s universal search for spirituality.
Though she does not believe in the notion of the “primitive” as it is implicitly ascribed to non-western tribal societies in the term “primitivism”, she does have an interest in the art produced by the movement because she herself is deeply inspired by the raw power, simplicity and asbtract symbolic nature of indigenous artforms. This has led her to study about African, Asian and Native North American masks and totems, the myths that surround them and how objects are used in the context of ritual to access the spiritual plane. To her, masks have the power to hybridize – create part human, part animal figures – and to transcend the individual by representing the universal. This is why she often paints mask-like faces on her figures.
Throughout her life, she has been greatly inspired by expressionist painters such as Henri Matisse, Marc Chagall, Paul Gauguin, Francis Bacon, Odilon Redon, to name a few. Interestingly, these artists also worked expressionistically with human and animal forms. She also has a deep admiration for abstract expressionist painters such as Chu Teh Chun, Zao Wou Ki and Mark Rothko for his spiritual intent to capture basic human emotions.
Juliette is also compelled to view her painting as action, in the sense of Jackson Pollock; for her, the process or the act of creation is equally important as the final result. The work of Franz Kline and Norman Bluhm are of particular resonance to her. She often paints on the floor, dripping paint and letting paint wash over the canvas as she tilts it. She alternates between carefully painting on layer by layer and scraping or sanding off layers of paint.
While working in Argentina, she discovered the work of Xul Solar and identified with his penchant for eastern philosophy and tribal art, as well as the “Otra Figuración” movement painters Luis Felipe Noé and Ernesto Deira whose expressionistically deformed bodies captured her imagination, and later, Brazilian painters such as Emiliano Di Cavalcanti, Bernardo Cid, Carybé and in particular the expressionist Iberê Camargo.
Of late, she has returned to her roots with a renewed affection for Asian simplicity, like that found in chinese calligraphy and zen Buddhism. The works of Gu Gan and the modernist movement of calligraphic paintings have inspired her to dip her paintbrushes into black ink.
Throughout her adult years, Juliette has also been a keen dancer and her experience in contemporary and Butoh dance has undoubtedly informed her painting - the female body in movement being a central theme in her work. She is also interested in the intersection between painting, dancing and filmmaking, and has carried out two experimental videodance art pieces which are being screened in Singapore and Brazil. She is also studying filmmaking in Rio de Janeiro, in order to further explore the possibilities of video in art and has worked as a performer-painter, dancer and actress in various short films.
exhibitions
Aug 2013 (in preparation) - MIB Gallery, Rio de Janeiro.
Solo exhibition of the Mystic series.
May 2013 - Artistry Gallery, Singapore
Selected to participate in group exhibition.
Mar 2013 - Cups 'n Canvas, Singapore.
Solo exhibition at this lively gallery-café.
Feb 2013 - Out of Sight Festival, Telok Ayer Performing Arts Centre, Singapore.
Invited to exhibit paintings and installation art at group exhibition of Singaporean and international artists.
Jan 2013 - Noise Singapore, online exhibition.
www.noisesingapore.com
Jan 2012 - Fill Your Walls gallery, online exhibition
In private collections in Sydney, Singapore, Paris and Rio de Janeiro.
Solo exhibition of the Mystic series.
May 2013 - Artistry Gallery, Singapore
Selected to participate in group exhibition.
Mar 2013 - Cups 'n Canvas, Singapore.
Solo exhibition at this lively gallery-café.
Feb 2013 - Out of Sight Festival, Telok Ayer Performing Arts Centre, Singapore.
Invited to exhibit paintings and installation art at group exhibition of Singaporean and international artists.
Jan 2013 - Noise Singapore, online exhibition.
www.noisesingapore.com
Jan 2012 - Fill Your Walls gallery, online exhibition
In private collections in Sydney, Singapore, Paris and Rio de Janeiro.
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