Guimi You

The practice of Guimi You (b. 1985, Seoul) is informed by her training in both traditional Korean portrait and landscape painting and oil painting. Her work combines the lucidity and richness of both traditions, resulting in canvases reveling in the beauty of natural environments and the communication of joy through pigment. You’s paintings blend and blur reality and daydreams with a sense of magical realism. They astound in their intimacy and playfulness.
You received her MA in painting from the Royal College of Art, London in 2014, and holds a BFA and an MFA in Korean portraiture and landscape art (San-su hwa) from Seoul National University, Korea in 2008 and 2011. Recent solo exhibitions include When the Sun Shines Again (2026) and Breath, Island (2025) at Lehmann Maupin, New York; Unwind (2024) at Almine Rech, London; Jessica Silverman, San Francisco (2024); and Make Room, Los Angeles (2023 and 2021). Her work is in the public collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; the de Young Museum, San Francisco; the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego; the ICA Miami; the Columbus Museum of Art; the Orange County Museum of Art; the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; the Yuz Museum, Shanghai; X Museum, Beijing; the Museum of Art, Seoul National University; and the College of Fine Arts, Seoul National University. Guimi You currently lives and works in Seoul.