• In Partial Order, Jinny Yu continues to embrace the language of abstraction as a means to investigate and understand the world around us. Working with watercolour on paper and oil on aluminum, Yu superposes shapes of colour, forming folds of three-dimensional forms while remaining just outside the realm of possibility. These shifting compositions serve as a metaphor for the spaces we inhabit and the fluid nature of identity.
    Drawing inspiration from concepts in quantum physics, Yu views "partial order" as a way to think about movement and displacement. Rather than seeing movement simply as migrating from point A to point B, Yu considers it a generative process in which past, present, and future remain intertwined, allowing competing positions to coexist, not as a problem to solve, but as a permanent condition to inhabit.
     
    "The concept of 'partial order' is an exploration of dimensional generation, where movement is not a change of location but the absolute creation of space." — Jinny Yu
  • Jinny Yu, Superposition 26-01, 2026

    Jinny Yu

    Superposition 26-01, 2026
    oil on aluminum
    60 x 55 in.
  • Jinny Yu, Superposition W26-10, 2026

    Jinny Yu

    Superposition W26-10, 2026
    watercolour on paper
    23 1/2 x 21 1/2 in.
  • Jinny Yu, Superposition W26-12, 2026

    Jinny Yu

    Superposition W26-12, 2026
    watercolour on paper
    23 1/2 x 21 1/2 in.
  • Jinny Yu, Superposition W26-15, 2026

    Jinny Yu

    Superposition W26-15, 2026
    watercolour on paper
    23 1/2 x 21 1/2 in.
  • Jinny Yu, Superposition W25-01, 2025

    Jinny Yu

    Superposition W25-01, 2025
    watercolour on paper
    23 1/2 x 21 1/2 in.
  • Jinny Yu, Superposition W26-13, 2026

    Jinny Yu

    Superposition W26-13, 2026
    watercolour on paper
    23 1/2 x 21 1/2 in.
  • JINNY YU Jinny Yu immigrated to Montreal from Seoul, Korea in 1988 and is currently a Professor of Visual Arts...

    Photo: Adrienne Row-Smith

    JINNY YU

     

    Jinny Yu immigrated to Montreal from Seoul, Korea in 1988 and is currently a Professor of Visual Arts at the University of Ottawa. Her acclaimed exhibition, at once, at the Art Gallery of Ontario was on view at Fondation Guido Molinari in the summer of 2025. In October of 2025, Yu's solo exhibition The world is burning and I am painting opened at the Dunlop Art Gallery. In September 2024, Yu’s series of drawings, Hôte, were part of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts’ exhibition, Two by Two, Together: Recent Additions to the MMFA’s Collection. In 2015, her installation, Don’t They Ever Stop Migrating? was presented during the 56th Venice Biennale. Yu has also participated in several artist residencies including at La Napoule Art Foundation in France, BoxoPROJECTS in Joshua Tree, the KIAC in Dawson City, ISCP in New York, Seoul Museum of Art Nanji Studios, and at the Banff Centre for the Arts. Yu's works are in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, as well as other prominent corporate collections.