Rochelle Youk

Instagram: @roachyface

Website: http://rochelle.youk@gmail.com

Bio: After receiving an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2010, Youk completed a bookbinding apprenticeship at letterpress publisher, The Arion Press, where she honed her skills for over a decade. She is a member of the Korean American Artist Collective, and the book arts themed collaborative project, The Boogers. Currently, Youk is an MA candidate at SF State University in the Asian American Studies department focusing on the relationship between art and radicalism.

Statement: Rochelle Youk works across media to craft objects informed by her heritage as the American daughter of immigrants from Japan and Korea. Labor intensive paintings, drawings, and sculptures examine the history between Asia and the United States through the lens of cultural traditions, especially folk crafts. She uses non-traditional materials like plexiglass, and cigarettes, to examine how visual traditions are shared, exchanged, and used to form identity.