Born Taegu, South Korea, 1971
Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY
Romon Kimin Yang aka Rostarr, who was born in Korea but has lived in New York since 1989, He has been a key figure in the city’s underground art scene and has exhibited throughout the United States, Asia and Europe.
His free-formed work, born from an intuitive process, which comes across as a universe of abstract and geometrical shapes from which symbolic and iconographic elements emerge in elegant and incisive gestural strokes. His work is defined by an expression he calls “Graphysics”, meaning the fusion of graphic arts and the physical laws governing the movement of energy.
Through the balance of dynamism & geometric order characteristic of his work, the artist explores the arbitrariness and relationship between significance and signifier with a sensibility that stems from his interest in iconography & calligraphy.
By using various materials, Rostarr is able to enhance the expressive capacity of surfaces. His work extends into the mediums of painting, digital media, sculpture, textile and public art projects with the ‘Barnstormers’ collective, a core member since 1999.
Born in Korea in 1971, Rostarr moved to Washington DC when he was a child. He then graduated from the School of Visual Arts in New York City in 1993. In 2000, he was featured as one of I.D. magazine’s “I.D. 40 under 30″. And in 2004 he was recognized as an honoree at the A.I.C.P. show held yearly at the MOMA for graphics in the Nike Basketball Asia “Flow” campaign. His first book “Graphysics” was published in 2001 by Alife. His work has been reviewed by Art Forum, Modern Painters, Village Voice, The New York Times and Artnet.com
