Midnight Movie

Korean-American artist Justin Yoon utilizes themes of melancholia and nostalgia to build landscapes that celebrate queer Asian imagery and stories. Through his recurring characters and signature color profile, Yoon allows the viewer into the world he crafts, making every piece feel like a distant dream or memory.

“Inspired by queer/gay films of the 70’s, campy B-movies that became a beacon of queer idolatry from the 60s ~ 90s, and archetypical queer imagery,” Yoon presents Midnight Movie, a story of queer history, kinship, intimacy, imagination and reimagination. In this exhibition, Yoon’s four iconic characters – Blue Dream, Marge the Space Queen (Marge, for short), Fivepoundz (the Shih Tzu), and Machoman Park – gather in a dreamlike and somewhat deserted coastal city for the premier of the quintessential queer and Asian feature film of the 1970’s, that came to be in their reality but not in ours.

Through this collection of acrylic on canvas paintings, we experience the subjects as both viewers and performers, as they star in this film as well as watch and absorb it together. In this landscape reminiscent of the California coast (where Yoon was born and raised) the viewer is invited into the story as a friend and co-star, the intimacy created being an essential part of the story.