Taeyouk Yeo was a lifelong creator—someone who never stopped exploring and challenging himself as a 3D animator and an artist.
I first met him in the fall of 2023 at someone’s exhibition in Toronto. When I introduced Artistry Community, our online exhibition platform for local Canadian artists, his eyes truly lit up. We immediately began planning an online exhibition collaboration. At our next meeting, he mentioned—almost casually— that he had a hospital appointment later that afternoon, while wiping away beads of sweat that wouldn’t stop. Even while undergoing chemotherapy, he never once suggested delaying or giving up on the exhibition.
To be honest, our team members—each juggling our own jobs—couldn’t quite keep up with his level of passion. My very last text message from him was also about the exhibition. And seeing how active he remained on social media with his artwork, we believed, just as he had said, that he would recover soon. But in May 2025, he left us suddenly and unbelievably.
For a while, we didn’t know whether to continue with the exhibition we’d been preparing. But at some point, I realized—almost instinctively—that he wouldn’t have wanted it to stop. I met with his family, and together decided to move forward with the online exhibition. As part of our upcoming series, we now take this moment to remember Taeyouk Yeo, the pure artist who stayed briefly among us.
A New Challenge: From 3D Animator to Ceramic Artist
Born in Busan, South Korea, Taeyouk Yeo studied sculpture and ceramics at Dong-A University’s College of Fine Arts (1997). After getting married, he moved to Canada and studied Computer Animation at Sheridan College (2004). For nearly 20 years, he worked professionally as a 3D animator.
I once wrote that “art is never something you can be forced to do, not even with money. Most artists create because they simply cannot not create.” Taeyouk was exactly like that—constantly driven by ideas and inspiration. By the time he entered his 50s, he had encountered a range of social issues and became fascinated with the violent roots of human emotion. To explore this theme, he turned to ceramics.
The ceramic series he produced during this time left a powerful impression. More than their striking form, what mattered was how he expressed humanity’s violence through clay in an aesthetic way. Human history is, after all, a history of violence. And death, our inevitable return to clay, is the last chapter none of us can escape. Sad yet beautiful, his fired clay works urged us to reflect more deeply.
In 2022, Taeyouk was selected as an Emerging Artist in the exhibition BREAKTHROUGH PLUS at Gagné Contemporary and Leslie Grove Gallery, marking the beginning of his determined path as a professional artist.
A Deeper Exploration of Death: From Clay to Leather
Taeyouk’s next challenge expanded from exploring humanity’s inherent violence to the deeper subject of death itself. His medium also shifted—from ceramics to leather.
Leather, once part of a living being, is a raw and sacred material. Taeyouk used it to honor the souls of animals, and at times to depict men dissolving into its surface as symbols of human mortality. Knowing that he was already undergoing chemotherapy during this time, one can’t help but feel that he was projecting his own vulnerable body—his own mortality—into these works.
He admitted that scraping leather had become too physically dangerous to continue. Instead, he created light, unfilled ceramic bowls—empty vessels whose title and form together allow us to glimpse the quiet state of mind of an artist nearing death.
The Final Journey: The Meaning of Empty Bowl
In the final stage of his artistic journey, Taeyouk returned once more to ceramics. This time, not as material alone, but as pure sculptural form. The works he produced in this period were titled Empty Bowl.
He admitted that scraping leather had become too physically dangerous to continue. Instead, he created light, unfilled ceramic bowls—empty vessels whose title and form together allow us to glimpse the quiet state of mind of an artist nearing death.
Art Lives On
I believe that for an artist, death is not the end. The market value and fame that follow are only what remain for the living.
What matters is this: if you can look at his works and still understand them, if you can feel what he left behind in leather, if you can look at his empty bowls and recognize the fragility and impermanence of life, then Taeyouk Yeo is still alive—living through his art.
At Artistry Community, we are presenting Taeyouk Yeo’s exhibition as our second show. Our first exhibition, <Oh, Canada>, was also designed to give artists opportunities to share their work widely, and we will continue to do so. With this exhibition, we aim to prepare a deeper encounter with Taeyouk’s works.
*** The upcoming exhibition and article are presented with the warm support and consent of artist’s family.