Yoon Nam first discovered pentimento while reading the poem “Repentance” by Natasha Trethewey: “Pentimento/ the word for a painter’s change of heart revision/ on canvas means the same as remorse after sin.” A person’s relationship to their memory can be both self-deprecating and self-preserving. As the poet tries to recollect her memory, she makes revisions; the poem at the end becomes the work of pentimento. This approach mirrors Nam’s own writing and painting practice. In Nam’s works, texts and images function as a mnemonic device and a pentimento. Nostalgia also plays a large part in her mnemonic inspiration. As the etymological root of the word nostalgia (“nostos,” return, home + “algos,” pain) implies, longing for places or people stirs up both pain and joy. Nostalgia is bifurcated, both painfully meaningful and joyously inspiring. The word for nostalgia in Korean is 향수 (pronounced “hyangsu”), though 향수 (“hyangsu”) also means perfume in Korean. The nostalgia-perfume connection in this Korean homonym makes sense. Longing is alluring, yet nauseating and dispiriting (hence “home-sickness”) simultaneously. Home-sickness is often triggered by something being redolent of home—note how “redolent” (“red-,” back, again + “olere,” to smell) suggests a sense of smell that repeatedly returns.
As a Korean immigrant in America, having lived in two countries and embracing two cultures and languages, Nam knows the memories and narratives she tries to recall and manifest matter, especially the equivocal and liminal ones, because they irrefutably shape her identity. In Nam’s painting, the words and images together don’t always coincide and tell a coherent story; they interrupt, return, repent, revise, or even “paint over,” shading and obscuring any authoritative narrative, one that dominates, becomes familiar, then, even ideal. Her paintings tell stories in the vernacular—she speaks what she knows over and over, neither polished nor substantial in style or tone, yet always faithfully nostalgic. Sometimes she might be struck dumb by nostalgia, unable to take a single step forward, but when the surprise occurs, whether by chance or practice, she is entranced by the wonder and agony of nostalgia, the freedom of being away and the pain of seeking the way back home—and possibly, on the way, following the light of a deeper place.
Yoon Nam was born and raised in Korea. She holds a Ph.D. in 16-17th century English literature and is a DJ who loves records, but visual art is her overriding interest. A self-
taught and multi-disciplinary artist who both writes and paints, her visions, whether non-literal, conceptual, or verbal, often interact and inform each other. Since her first art show in 2013, shehas shown her work in many places, including Eyedrum, Hi-Lo Press and Gallery, Camayuhs, Swan Coach House Gallery, Mint Gallery, and the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Most recently, she was a 2024 Edge Award finalist and will be included in the 2024 Edge Award Exhibition at Swan Coach House Gallery. Her artwork combines a variety of mediums to explore nostalgia and cultural dislocation, always aware of her status as an outsider in the dominant cultures of both countries she has lived in.