Rooted in painting, she moves between figuration and abstraction to build immersive compositions that blur landscape and interior, structure and atmosphere.​ 

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Her paintings are marked by expressive brushwork and richly saturated palettes. Layered textures and gestures suggest cycles of growth and decay moments when vitality and collapse coexist. Drawing from both natural ecosystems and urban environments, she creates spaces that feel intimate yet expansive, where emotional and ecological narratives converge.

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Birds recur as key motifs, symbolising resilience, transience, and the tension between freedom and extinction. Referencing endangered species such as the ‘ō‘ō and the huia, Yula reflects on histories of loss while imagining new forms of coexistence in an increasingly urbanised world. Nature in her paintings is not a backdrop, but an active presence entangled with human experience, memory, and cultural identity.

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Her work has been presented at the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (Platinum Jubilee Collection, 2022), Tate Modern (2023), and the Science Museum (2024). In 2023, a painting was selected to commemorate His Majesty’s Coronation and was shown at Windsor Castle during the Coronation Concert. In 2025, she was interviewed by Korea.net (Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Sport). Her works are held in the Royal College of Art Special Collections, Heasung Art Bay Centre, and private collections internationally.

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Yula holds an Master of Art from the Royal College of Art, and an MA in Museums and Galleries in Education (Distinction) from University College London.