Buck Yu

EDUCATION

Chugye University for the Arts, Seoul, Korea
B.F.A. in Western Painting Université Paris 8, Paris, France
Degree in Fine Arts / Plastic Arts

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS & PROJECTS

2026 YU BUCK Solo Exhibition, Gallery Naeil, Seoul, Korea
PARK HANGRYUL & YU BUCK, Gallery Naeil, Seoul, Korea

2025 Green Grass of Home, Gallery Naeil, Seoul, Korea

2024 Existence in a Dual Structure, Gallery Naeil, Seoul, Korea

2023 Separated Space, Gallery Naeil, Seoul, Korea

2022 Invisible Nature, Gallery Naeil, Seoul, Korea
Absence, Gallery Rhyzome, Changwon, Korea

2020 YU BUCK Invitational Exhibition, Gallery Naeil, Seoul, Korea

2017 Jungnangcheon Neunggok Bridge Video Project, Uijeongbu, Korea

Selected Earlier Projects and Exhibitions

Rungis Meat Factory Video Project, France
Van Hoek Gallery, Paris, France
Pascal Gallery, Paris, France
Vincennes Forest Project, Vincennes, France
Espace Issy-les-Moulineaux, France
Total Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea
Sungkok Art Museum, Seoul, Korea
Seosan Cultural Center, Seosan, Korea
Ilhyun Art Museum, Yangyang, Korea
Duru Art Space, Seoul, Korea
Samtan Art Mine Installation Project, Jeongseon, Korea
“Yeontan” Public Art Project, Gohan, Korea

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS & ART PROJECTS

2026
PARK HANGRYUL & YU BUCK, Gallery Naeil, Seoul, Korea
Pine Tree, Boundless Resonance — Special Exhibition Commemorating the 140th Anniversary of Korea-France Diplomatic Relations, Seosomun Shrine History Museum, Seoul, Korea

2022
Remembrance: At the End of Loss, Jeonnam Museum of Art, Gwangyang, Korea

2021
Connection: Uijeongbu Art & Culture Festival, Uijeongbu Art Library & Baek Young-soo Art Museum, Uijeongbu, Korea
The 7th Pyeongchang-dong Story, Art Space Qualia, Seoul, Korea

2018
PAF! Paris, Bastille Design Center, Paris, France
European International Media Art Exhibition, Brussels, Belgium
International Outdoor Installation Exhibition, Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Paris, France

Art Project Ulsan

Geumgang Nature Art Biennale — Cube Exhibition, Gongju, Korea
Jangheung Water Festival Installation Project, Jangheung, Korea
Cheongju Craft Biennale — Corporate Media Support Project, Cheongju, Korea
Gangjeong Daegu Contemporary Art Festival, Daegu, Korea

Selected Earlier Group Exhibitions & Projects
Gwangju Design Biennale & World Aquatics Championships Special Exhibition, Gwangju, Korea
Korea–India Contemporary Artists Exhibition
Korea–France Artists Exchange Exhibition, Masan, Korea
New York Art Fair, New York, USA
Gongju International Art Festival, Gongju, Korea
Suwon Public Art Project — The Origin of Water, Suwon, Korea
Young European Artists Paper Exhibition, Paris, France
Kim Whanki International Art Festival, Sinan–Mokpo, Korea
Art in Superstar Exhibition, Seoul, Korea

AWARDS / RECOGNITION

2000 Selected as one of the 20 Artists of the Year, Arts Council Korea
Selected as an artist for the Introduction of Korean Art program, Arts Council Korea

My work begins with a fundamental question: What does it mean to create nature?

To create nature may seem inherently contradictory. Nature cannot truly be manufactured; rather, the act of creating nature becomes an attempt to imitate, reconstruct, or intervene in what already exists. Through this contradiction, I examine the relationship between human beings and the natural world, and the hidden structures that exist beneath what we perceive as beautiful and natural.

I am particularly interested in the fragile boundary between life and death, desire and restraint, beauty and violence. In my work, insects and other small living beings become important subjects. Attracted by light, scent, or other stimuli, they enter transparent structures or surfaces that appear open and free but ultimately function as traps. Their movements and eventual disappearance become part of the work itself.

The insects are not simply materials or symbols of death. They reveal a larger question about the human gaze. We often see nature from a human-centered perspective, deciding what is beautiful, useful, insignificant, or harmful. What appears to be a small and disposable creature may, from another perspective, be an essential part of the larger structure of life.

I use transparent materials, bubble wrap, plastic, cardboard, wood, light, sound, water, and found or organic materials to construct spaces in which appearance and reality become difficult to separate. The transparent surface can suggest openness and beauty while simultaneously concealing a mechanism of confinement. Through this duality, I attempt to expose the contradictions embedded within human desire and perception.

My earlier works with cardboard also explored the idea of the double structure of the image. A seemingly flat surface contains an inner structure, and what appears to be a complete image may actually be supported by countless small and almost invisible elements. This interest in the relationship between the surface and what lies beneath it continues throughout my practice.

I am also concerned with the loss of humanity within a society driven by consumption, production, and material desire. Civilization appears solid and powerful from the outside, yet its structure may depend upon countless fragile lives and overlooked beings. My installations and images seek to reveal this hidden relationship between the individual, society, and nature.

Ultimately, my work does not attempt to provide a simple answer. Instead, it creates a space of discomfort and contemplation where the viewer must confront the contradictions within his or her own gaze.

What we consider beautiful, natural, or desirable may contain another reality beneath its surface.

Through this tension, I explore the fragile boundary between humanity and nature, life and death, desire and ethics, and beauty and violence.

YU BUCK is a Korean contemporary artist whose multidisciplinary practice explores the complex relationship between nature, human intervention, life and death, and the contradictions embedded in human desire. His practice encompasses installation, video, sculpture, and process-based works that often incorporate natural materials, transparent plastics, light, sound, and insects.

YU BUCK graduated from the Department of Western Painting at Chugye University for the Arts, Seoul, and later studied Fine Arts at Université Paris 8 in France. His artistic career has developed across Korea and France, with projects and exhibitions presented in galleries, museums, public spaces, and international art events.

Since his early video and installation projects in France, YU BUCK has continued to expand the boundaries between art and the natural environment. His projects have included the Rungis Meat Factory Video Project, the Vincennes Forest Project, and projects at Van Hoek Gallery and Pascal Gallery in Paris, as well as exhibitions and installation projects at institutions and cultural spaces in Korea including Total Museum of Contemporary Art, Sungkok Art Museum, Ilhyun Art Museum, Samtan Art Mine, and Gallery Naeil.

A significant development in his recent practice is his exploration of insects as both living subjects and active participants in the artistic process. By placing transparent acrylic or plastic structures in natural environments and using artificial light and adhesive materials to attract insects, he allows the accumulation of insects over time to become part of the work. The resulting forms reveal an unsettling relationship between natural processes and human intervention.

His work has been presented in numerous exhibitions and art projects in Korea and abroad, including the Jeonnam Museum of Art, Geumgang Nature Art Biennale, Gwangju Design Biennale, 2018 PAF Paris, European international media-art exhibitions in Brussels, outdoor installation projects in France, and public-art and environmental projects in Korea. In 2021, he participated in ART ON PAPER NY and the Meta Flower Garden: Senegal and Neighboring Countries project in Changwon. In 2022, he participated in the Jeonnam Museum of Art exhibition Remembrance: At the End of Loss.

YU BUCK was selected by the Arts Council Korea in 2000 as one of the 20 Artists of the Year and was also selected for the organization’s program introducing Korean art.

Recent exhibitions include Green Grass of Home at Gallery Naeil, Seoul in 2025, followed by a two-person exhibition with PARK HANGRYUL in March–April 2026. His solo exhibition Raft (뗏목) is being presented at Gallery Naeil from September 29 to October 7, 2026, featuring new works incorporating wood, insects, bubble wrap, vinyl, light, sound, and other materials.

Through an ongoing investigation of natural systems and human intervention, YU BUCK transforms seemingly simple materials and living organisms into situations that question beauty, desire, mortality, ethics, and the fragile boundary between nature and culture.