Ung-Pil Byen 2024

Someone 2024 Oil on canvas 41 x 32 cm
Ung-Pil Byen, now working in Korea after 11 years in Germany, creates portraits that merge Western painting techniques with a distinct Eastern ethos of erasure and emptiness. His self-portrait series, begun in Germany, abstracts his own features by removing elements like hair and skin color, challenging conventional markers of identity. Byen questions biases surrounding beauty, skin color, gender, and class, and in later works extends this anonymity to others. This deliberate ambiguity invites viewers to confront their inner biases, projecting personal narratives onto the simplified faces he presents.