By Paul Gessell

During a recent visit to the Canada Council Art Bank, I fell in love with a magical painting by Jinny Yu, an associate professor of visual art at the University of Ottawa.

At a giant six feet by six feet, there was a lot to love.

This new acquisition by the Art Bank had echoes of 1960s op art but with a far more contemporary feel. The green and black geometric shapes painted on a sheet of aluminum also spoke of computerized circuit boards or intersecting DNA tracks. They formed a complex puzzle that, if stared at too long, would begin to dance before your eyes.

The painting is called Story of a Global Nomad (De Vonk I). Its creator certainly is a global nomad. Yu was just 12 when she came with her family from South Korea to Montreal. She was educated at Concordia University in Montreal, York University in Toronto; for the last six years, she has been teaching in Ottawa. (more…)