“Rage & Ecstasy,” the Boston-based artist’s current project, is vibrant, juxtaposing harsh, violent colors and features of the ‘Rage’ next to the delicate beaded work of ‘Ecstasy.’ Her paintings depict the Karen phenomenon, their features warped and stretched to resemble the idea of a raging white woman showcasing her privilege. ‘Karen’ has become a colloquial term to describe white women in fits of fury and entitlement, their ire often directed toward those unable to give them what they believe they deserve.

“If Karen feels like she or they are entitled to something and they’re not getting what they’re entitled to, and they’re going to a public place to take it and take power from other people, in order to get what they’re entitled to. What’s the reverse of the Karen?” Szu pondered while showing me her work.

We stood in front of “Cleanup on Aisle Four,” where nude Karens lay on the ground in orgasmic displays of ecstasy. For them, rage is a release of emotions. Yun imagines them enjoying the pleasure from this release, especially in areas where such a display is taboo – such as the grocery store in which the women are painted. In the background of the painting, two figures go about their business, paying no attention to the Karens.

Dogs, and dog food, are constant themes. One painting titled “Houndstooth” takes up a good chunk of the wall. A woman wearing a black-and-white houndstooth coat is in a frenzy, limbs moving so wildly they’ve become a blur of motion, giving her more than one pair of arms and legs. Her face is obscured by her hair. 

“That’s actually totally me. You can see it’s very similar to my hair,” Szu remarked. 

Dogs in vivid color are scattered across the canvas.

“The dogs are, I feel like, it connects to the person in rage, where it’s like a very genuine, primal, moment… They’re uninhibited in their joy, in their lust, in their sickness, in their violence.” 

In another installation, a tangle of glass beads are surrounded by resin-coated cod-skin and pig ears – “fancy” dog food.

“Rage & Ecstasy” has been on display in the Trustman Art Gallery since October 2. According to Loretta Park, Assistant Teaching Professor of Art and Director of the Trustman Art Gallery, students have been curious and thoughtful about the exhibit. Park, who has been in her position since August 2025, brought her class to view the exhibit and talk to Szu. “Cleanup on Aisle Four” has been a conversation starter, she said.  

Art has been a part of Yun’s life since she was young. She received her BFA in 2011 from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design before receiving her MFA in 2016 from the University of Arts London. 

Yun began “Rage and Ecstasy” during the pandemic.  

“I have to paint because I’m going crazy,” she explained. 

Her subject? The Karen figure. 

The first piece Yun painted in the series is titled “Central Park.” Done in hues of green, three panels show Amy Cooper, who went viral in 2020 for calling the police when a Black man in Central Park asked her to leash her dog.

“I just had a lot of curiosity, and the Amy Copper video felt like the perfect one… There’s a power about the way she can communicate that type of narrative, and people also recognized it, too.”

Yun’s work takes the viral video and captures it, freezing it in a moment of time. You’re forced to sit with it. You can’t just scroll away. 

“What was interesting was, ‘What’s a viral video?’ Is it a mass cultural imagination? And, at some point, people were making music videos of the Karen phenomenon. They were doing skits of it, like comedy skits. And so it felt like something that people were familiar with, and there was a mythology behind it.”

Her work explores the intricacies of this mythology, exploring power and privilege.

Yun will be giving her artist talk on November 6 at 6 p.m. in the Trustman Art Gallery, discussing more about her art with the Simmons community. The gallery is open on Monday through Wednesday from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Thursdays from 10 a..m. to 7 p.m., and Fridays from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m..