Yong Sin - the Grid: Sacred and Secular

Yong Sin

The Grid: Sacred and Secular

Working primarily from the organizational grid and employing a geometric austerity and deceptive plainness reminiscent of Max Cole and Agnes Martin, Sin works in collage, painting, and mixed media. The meditative repetitiveness of the grid is often interrupted by quiet noise, but noise nonetheless, as the matrix flickers with near-kinetic energy.

“The ordered linear grid format is a compositional device to experiment with group structures and the dynamics of various configurations. There is persistent interplay within each grid that amplifies within a group setting. I create nuances to challenge the ideas of identity, and I create just enough expressive variation to energize the recurring shapes.”

- Yong Sin

Sin’s handmade patterned artworks recall hundreds of years of tradition in textile design and the therapeutic traditions of repetition, meditation and mantra. The enduring practice of replication has been pursued to aid in the search for enlightenment.

“So, ultimately, the nuances, the variations, the seemingly recurring shapes, and the repeated failures are the true core of my work. And ironically, it’s not about something perfect.”

In Rosalind Krauss’s essay “Grids” she argues that using a grid makes it possible for artists to produce very material objects and speak to the pure materiality of the work while at the same time implying a connection to ideas of spirit and “Being.” In Krauss’s argument, the grid makes a work “sacred and secular” at the same time.”

The Grid: Sacred and Secular by Yong Sin at solo, curated by Ron Linden. On view from April 26, 2025 until June 14, 2025.