Artist Bio

Artist Max Yoon was born in Kae Sung, South Korea in 1944. During his early days in school, Yoon was torn by two loves. His mother harbored an appreciation for drawing as well as other art forms and she imparted this love to her son. Yoon's second love was the bass guitar and this jazz band. All during his early years, Yoon was pressed to fine time for both of his muses, and excelled in them both. The time came when the young man faced a choice. Yoon chose music, but these two paths were meant to merge again...

After twelve years of playing jazz, Yoon injured his hand seriously and once again began to draw. He states: "All arts have something is common, influencing each other and forming synergy between them." Today, Yoon remarks that some viewers of his work can hear the sound of soft jazz flowing from the canvas.

Incorporating a series of palette knives, each individual stroke of Yoon's technique is made with deliberate precision. A finished piece is composed primarily in texture, allowing the viewer to feel the layout with their eyes. Yoon's color pallet possess a limitless full dark to light range, creating tremendous contrast. Subtly hinted blues reduce the shock of reds and greens. Deep dark purples create shadows and ghostly Yellow and translucent white highlight the greens of hidden grassy hollows.

Yoon's subjects attempt to capture the unreachable perfection of our imaginations .Nowhere on earth will you find any of Yoon's secret forest glades and hidden dreamscape gardens. Typically, sharply focused foreground shades lead into a glorious highlighted are, before once again darkening to the mysterious depths beyond. Yoon's trees are alive with brilliant , true to life texture. Copious foliage formed by hundreds of tiny individually placed leaves usurp perfectly balanced backgrounds. His pathways are invitingly real, touched by fragmented light that knifes trough the greenery. Suggestions of farmhouses, columns, and potted flowers occasionally blend into the landscape, but never impose on the harmony of the piece.

Yoon comments that it has long been a human obsession to posses nature's wild touch by forcing our will on god's canvas. Even though some of his subjects are not real places, yoon attempts to convey a message of enduring hope and beauty of our natural world through his work.

Max Yoon has exhibited in New York, Carmel, Atlanta, Palm Beach and other major cities and art destinations. His work can by found in many prestigious private and corporate art collections in the United States and abroad.