Yoon Byung Rock 윤병락
Widely known as the “Apple Artist,” Yoon Byung-Rock was born in Yeongcheon, Gyeongsangbuk-do, in 1968. He received both his BFA and MFA in Western Painting from Kyungpook National University. He gained early recognition while still a student, receiving a Special Selection at the National Art Exhibition of Korea and the Grand Prize at the Daegu Art Exhibition.
For Yoon, the apple is both a familiar motif that evokes memories of home, abundance, and happiness, and a visual medium through which he explores the form and spatial possibilities of painting. Moving beyond the conventional rectangular canvas, he constructs uniquely shaped panels that follow the contours of his compositions. Combined with a bird’s-eye perspective, these unconventional supports create the illusion that the apples might roll beyond the picture plane and into the viewer’s space. His meticulous rendering and irregularly shaped surfaces blur the boundaries between two and three dimensions, image and reality.
Yoon’s practice extends beyond the realistic depiction of apples. Rather than assigning the fruit a fixed symbolic meaning, he approaches it as a formal device through which he continually investigates the boundaries of painting. More recently, his sculptural apples made of FRP have brought the image beyond the painted surface and into physical exhibition space, further dissolving the distinction between painting and object. Through this familiar motif, Yoon continues to explore how far painting can extend beyond its conventional frame.
Exhibitions
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2025 Yoon Byung-Rock: Four Seasons, Nohwa Gallery, Seoul, Korea
2025 Logos Museum of Art, Gwacheon, Korea
2025 Gallery AP Space, New York, USA
2024, 2023 Gallery GU, Seoul, Korea
2022, 2019, 2018, 2016, 2014, 2013, 2010, 2007 Nohwa Gallery, Seoul, Korea
2022 Yoon Byung-Rock Archive, Hori Artspace, Seoul, Korea
2020 Yoon Byung-Rock’s Space, Seoul Auction Gangnam Center, 5F, Seoul, Korea
2017 A-Route Art Platform, Seoul, Korea
2009 LEEAHN Gallery, Changwon, Korea
2006, 2004, 2001, 2000 Songadang Gallery, Daegu, Korea
2001 Daegu Culture and Arts Center Young Artists Invitational Exhibition, Daegu Culture and Arts Center, Daegu, Korea
1998 Debec Plaza Gallery, Daegu, Korea
1995 Solo Invitational Exhibition as an Artist Selected by the Gogeum Art Research Association, Bongsung Gallery, Daegu, Korea
Group Exhibitions
2026 Yoon Byung-Rock & Choi Young-Wook Special Invitational Exhibition: Fruition and Emptiness, Logos Museum of Art, Gwacheon, Korea
2026 Peace: Connecting Through Art, Odusan Unification Observatory Exhibition Hall, Paju, Korea
2026 Galleries Art Fair, COEX, Seoul, Korea
2025 Kiaf SEOUL, COEX, Seoul, Korea
2025 ART BUSAN, BEXCO, Busan, Korea
2024 Galleries Art Fair, COEX, Seoul, Korea
2024 ART BUSAN, BEXCO, Busan, Korea
2024 Daegu Art Fair, EXCO, Daegu, Korea
2023 Artists Who Must Be Remembered, Beaux-Arts Gallery, Seoul, Korea
2023 THE DOTS, Gallery Now, Seoul, Korea
2023 Kiaf SEOUL, COEX, Seoul, Korea
2022 The ARTPLACE HMC 2022 – Welcome Frieze, Oakwood Premier COEX Center, Seoul, Korea
2022 Mom! I’m Sorry I’m Fake!, Jeju Museum of Art, Jeju, Korea
2022 Kiaf SEOUL, COEX, Seoul, Korea
2022 ART BUSAN, BEXCO, Busan, Korea (presented by Lee Hwaik Gallery)
2021 Park Sung-Min, Yoon Byung-Rock & Choi Young-Wook, VIDI Gallery, Seoul, Korea
2020 Fresh Green Museum: Apple In My Eyes, SOMA Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
2019 Park Sung-Min & Yoon Byung-Rock, VIDI Gallery, Seoul, Korea
2019 Kiaf, COEX, Seoul, Korea
2019 Delicious Museum, Gwangju Museum of Art, Gwangju, Korea
2019 Artists of Tomorrow: Happy Dream, Nohwa Gallery, Seoul, Korea
2018 Act 1, Scene 1, Summit Gallery, Seoul, Korea
2017 ART369, Artplace, Seoul, Korea
2017 Hyundai The Art Show, Hyundai Department Store Pangyo, Seongnam, Korea
2016 Hyperrealism: Alive and Breathing, Hyundai Arts Center, Ulsan, Korea
2015 Small Paintings, Big Hearts, Nohwa Gallery, Seoul, Korea
2014 Milan Art Fair, Milan, Italy
2013 Figurative Painting Festival, Geukje Museum of Art, Daegu, Korea
2012 Unprecedented: Art Star Exhibition, Gallery Jeon, Daegu, Korea
2012 Healing Camp: Artists-in-Residence Exhibition, Gana Art Center, Seoul, Korea
2012 Photography by a Paintbrush, State of the Arts Gallery, Hong Kong
2011 Art Forte – Harmony: Paintings in Concert, Gana Art Center, Seoul, Korea
2011 Eight Artists of Lyrical Painting: An Autumn of Longing, Seorim Gallery, Seoul & Busan, Korea
2011 Real Fantasy: Between Painting and Photography, Lotte Gallery Cheongnyangni, Seoul, Korea
2011 Hyperrealism: Deceiving the Eye, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
2010 Mura Simgsu, Gana Art Center, Seoul, Korea
2009 Singapore Art Fair, Suntec Singapore, Singapore
2009 Art Taipei, Taipei, Taiwan
2009 Another Everyday Life: Hyperrealist Painting, Past and Present, Seongnam Arts Center, Seongnam, Korea
2009 Beijing Art Fair, Beijing, China
2009 New Ogamdo, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
2009 The Language of Objects, Gallery Hyundai Gangnam, Seoul, Korea
2008 I Like Painting, Insa Art Center, Seoul, Korea
2008 Art Singapore, Singapore
2008 Art Taipei, Taipei, Taiwan
2007 Recharge Your Imagination, Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, Ansan, Korea
2006 Art International Zurich, Kongresshaus Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland
2006 The Truth of Six Rooms, Savina Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea
2006 Image – To Draw, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
2006 Dubai Art Fair, Dubai, UAE
2006 Miami Art Fair, Miami Beach Convention Center, Miami, USA
2005 10th Strasbourg International Contemporary Art Fair, Parc des Expositions, Strasbourg, France
2005 ARTéNIM, Parc Expo Nîmes, Nîmes, France
2005 Art Singapore, Suntec Singapore, Singapore
2005 A Parallel History: Daegu and Gyeongbuk Art in Korean Contemporary Art, Cyan Museum of Art, Yeongcheon, Korea
Prizes & Achievements
1998 Grand Prize, 18th Daegu Art Exhibition, Daegu Culture and Arts Center, Daegu, Korea
1993 Special Selection, 12th Grand Art Exhibition of Korea, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, Korea
COLLECTIONS
National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA), and various corporate, foundation, and judicial collections.