나연 류
light,
paint,
draw,
make,
think,
I find inspiration in the everyday things around me and
i draw the things I love
any questions / inquires
nayounryu@gmail.com
Exhibitions
(current)
Whisper salon, ReSound New York-HERO at Rockefeller Center
610 5th Avenue Rink Level, New York
April 23 - end of summer
Bold strokes, Salmagundi club Rockwell gallery
47 5th Ave, New York, NY 10003
May 12 - June 05
(upcoming)
Light nights , at my favorite lighting showroom gallery
New York, NY 10010
Details coming soon
(past)
2025 House Warming, PARK AT KIMS, New York, USA
2025 Unexpected, Salmagundi club, New York, USA
2023 Lamp show, Head Hi, New York, USA
post
5/11/2026
<man i trust>
A few years ago, I was making dinner for Lu.
She took a photo of my back and said,
“Let me capture this moment, because you can’t see your own back.”
She was right. I had never really seen it myself - only through mirrors, never directly. Somehow, that thought lingered in my mind for years… until today.
Now, looking at this photo I took five years ago, I feel like I can read so much from his back. To watch someone from behind is to quietly share their perspective, to see the world the way they see it. Sometimes distance reveals even more, not only where someone is looking, but also the world surrounding them, including the things they may not notice themselves.
I’ve come to feel that watching over someone from behind can be even more intimate than facing them directly. Looking at someone’s back can feel comforting, but it can also feel like goodbye — like maybe this is the last time you’ll ever see them again. But I was never afraid of his back. I always knew he would come back, with his thoughts and emotions digested, and that he would never leave me behind.
Whenever something weighed heavily on him, he would go outside for a long walk, carrying his sighs with him and showing his back. Sometimes the walks were so long that I would call and ask where he was. But he always came back and asked about my day.
Growing up, I learned that he needed time alone to process things before returning home. Back then, I used to think facing things immediately was always the better way to figure things out. But over time, I realized it doesn’t always work that way.
Maybe because I’m his daughter.
So whenever I see his back, I know he’s simply taking time- digesting his thoughts and emotions before coming back to me, to our home, to our family, with his kindness again.
I know you always look at my back.
and so do i
I know you’ve always got my back.
and so do i
i miss you and i love you 아빠
happy parents’ day! (엄마도 <3)
4/29/2026
ba na na
4/21/2026
오랜만에
4/5/2026
<April Full> 사월의 이모저모
Still exploring new apples, restarting long walks under the sun, finishing the egglow series, and almost done with the night light series (98/100). I didn’t mind traveling far from the city, and I tried to show up more, for my friends’ important days, or even just ordinary ones. I couldn’t stop eating brie cheese, changed my room layout, and celebrated my beloved friends’ engagement and marriage. I received my mom’s handmade crochet blanket and top as an early birthday gift. I went gallery hopping, attended openings, and tried to live in the moment.
Many of my friends asked why I deleted my social media. There’s no big reason, honestly..I just wanted to (verb) more (noun) in real life. It’s been good, even though I’ve missed many things.
2025
scrap (library Wednesday / learning Wednesday)
i read
life books:
<작별> (2018)
by 한강
<모순> Contradiction (1998)
by 양귀자 Yang Gui-ja
<WAITING FOR GODOT> (1952)
by Samuel Beckett
<THE GARDNERr> (1997)by Samuel Beckett
by Sarah Stewart
WIP...
The book that pulled me in :
(ordered by publication date)
<YOU ARE WHAT YOU DO> (2025)
by Daniel Arnold
<THE ORANGE> (2023)
by Wendy Cope
<KITCHEN TABLE SEREIS> (2016)
by Carrie Mae Weems
<IF YOU GIVE A MOUSE COOKIE> (1985)
by Laura Numeroff (author),
Felicia Bond (illustrator)
<ETCHING AND WOODCUTS> (1971)
by Alice Trumbull Mason
<WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE> (1963)
by Maurice Sendak
i like
artist
Soyun Shin
Jane Freilicher
Georg Hallensleben
Giorgio Morandi
Eunhyung Cho
Eric Carle
Tzuhsin Lu
Gillian Murphy
Hyelin Cho
music ( ordered by release date)
Maali - Maali (album) (2025)
Daniel Caesar – who knows (2025)
Honne – Imaginary (2024)
Delorians - Needy (2024)
AIR – Moon safari (album) (2023)
Chris Botti – Paris (2023)
Dizzy & Fay – There you are (In my heart) (2022)
Couch – Autumn (2022)
Montell Fish – Fall in love with you (2022)
Otto Benson – Songs before bed (2022)
Haruka Nakamura – call from spring (2020)
FKJ – Ylang Ylang (2019)
Aaron taylor - Home (2018)
검정치마 The Black Skirt – Team Baby (album) (2017)
Ezra Collective – Intro (2017)
Polo & pan - Cœur croisé (2017)
Matthew Halsall, The Gondwana Orchestra - When the world was one (2014)
Stacey Kent – The Changing Lights (album) (2013)
Lars Danielsson - Libretto (album) (2012)
Ryuichi Sakamoto – hibari (2009)
Green day - Last night on earth (2009)
She & him - Volume 1 (album)(2008)
Belle and Sebastian - Funny little frog (2006)
Ennio Morricone – The Crisis (1998)
Takatoshi Naitoh – In the Forest (1993)
전람회 Exhibition – 기억의 습작 (Etude of Memoirs) (1994)
Paul Sauvanet - Sérénité (1989)
Tchaikovsky – Fantasy Overture “Romeo and Juliet”, Sleeping Beauty Waltz (1988–1989)
Nikolai Kapustin – Eight Concert Etudes, Op. 40 (1984)
Gilbert O' Sullivan - What's in a kiss (1980)
Ryo Fukui – Mellow Dream (1977)
Paul Desmond - Samba with some barbecue (1969)
Tom Jobim – Wave (1967)
Neco – Samba E Violão (album) (1967)
Piero Piccioni – Amore Mio Aiutami, Lady Love, Per Noi Due Soli (1966–1969)
Stan Getz – The Girl From Ipanema (1962)
Chet Baker – Chetty’s Lullaby (1962)
Luiz Bonfa (com Norma Suely) - A Voz E O Violao (1960)
George Gershwin – I Love You, Porgy (piano version) (1935)
Johannes Brahms – Intermezzo Op.118 No.2 (1893)
Paulinho Nogueira - O Fino Do Violao Vol.2 (1980)
Robert Schumann - Op. 68, No. 16 (Erster Verlust) (1848)
Chopin - Ballade No. 4, Op. 52 (1842)
Dean Martin & Caterina Valente - One Note Samba
misc
★ family and friends
letters (many many)
going to the park on a nice breezy day
journal
observing people interact with my work
train ride
Sourdough (thinly sliced)
stumbling upon an unexpected book in the library
weekend nap (around 3pm)
taking a different route to work
imagining the good things (very specifically) that are ahead of me
travel
changing the tablecloth
still light out after work
truly celebrating the good things happening to people (i care)
cinnamon roll (no icing on top)
good conversation
in the office with my favorite coworkers
sore muscles (sometimes)
ice cream (pistachio/vanilla/mint chocolate chip) + twix (topping)
apple with brie cheese
ballet
planning
small little things that make me smile
morning greetings in the elevator with neighbors (good morning!)
long walk (good weather is a must)
pen paiting with a good paper
good news
inspiration
poem (that i can understand)
new experience
learning
newyork
WIP ......
Work
CBBLD
Parsons School of Deisgn
L’Observatoire
Studio formgiver
SAAD
Mavericks
Gentle Monster
Black ink
Freelance / Illutrator
past collborators
Florencia Lechin
John Junior Kim
Julieta Hernandez
Nicholas Bryne
TzhHsin Lu
Dain Yoon
private collection
(new york edition)
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