Somewhere between psychedelia and pop art lies Vakki, the Korean artist whose colorful imagery not only provides eye-popping stimulation, but also relates to a historical moment in her country’s past.

Via collage, video art, and installation, Vakki often references the South Korea of the early eighties, where, after much delay, color television and printers were finally introduced to the public. The resulting explosion of color in the media—especially in advertising or even government propaganda—forms the root of a lot of her work, which regularly recycles vintage content and kitsch into kinetic, graphic, geometric playfulness.

With an aesthetic that operates in both the commercial sphere—no surprise, given her inspirations—and the gallery, her previous work as a VJ and short film and music video director surely informs her practice now. With solo exhibitions in Seoul, Berlin, Beijing and New York, plus collaborations with other artists, musicians and designers, her unique vision of the world is finding more and more outlets.

With her “VaVaVa Investigation Lab”, Vakki specializes in “visualizing untamed emotions.” She also seeks to transport the viewer or audience back to an age of innocence, a chromatic playground intending to evoke a kind of pure, pre-existential happiness—which can also read as a kind of escapism from this modern life of war, terror and financial instability. Vakki would have us believe that the future is still bright, and her artwork reflects that.