Kate Oh Gallery presents an international group exhibition “Liaison II” which will bring together prominent Korean artists based in New York, Seoul and Hangzhou: Jaesoon Roh, Bumhun Lee, Hyobin Kwon, Kate Oh, Jin Hwan Cho, Jee Hui Hong, and Seojin Baek.
Bumhun Lee earned his BFA and MFA at the Hongik University in South Korea and participated in 27 solo exhibitions and numerous major group shows. He has received Honorary Award three times at The Grand Art Exhibition of Korea and National Assembly Standing Committee Award from the Korea Creation Culture Art Awards. In his most renowned series “Flower Dance” introduced in the exhibit, Lee depicts a meaning of life in a gentle, delight and profound manner expressed in clusters of flowers. The rhythmical movement expands an individual’s desire as a whole and emphasizes the importance of harmonizing social desires and that of one’s own life.
Jaesoon Roh graduated from the Hongik University and had 37 solo exhibitions as well as other major group exhibits. He also served as a judging committee panelist of The Grand Art Exhibition of Korea. His main body of work “Sound” is a realistic oil painting that renders human lips. In the center, the bold and exquisite use of color of lips draw attention and other elements are collaged with scraps of papers, graffiti, and pop art. Kate Oh will exhibit a contemporary Minhwa using mineral pigments, ink on Hanji. As the founder and owner of the Kate Oh Gallery in New York and OH Gallery in Korea, she aims to create International artistic and cultural dialogues and introduce Korean arts and culture. She has conducted Minhwa workshops at the Asia Society Museum in New York and Princeton University and has been volunteering at the Metropolitan Museum of Arts as an international docent. Her endeavors in promoting Korean Arts and culture have gained wide recognition and she received Special Honorary Award at the 12th Annual Korean Artists Gala presented by KFAA.
Hyo Bin Kwon, the Executive Vice President at the NYKAA (New York Korean Artist Association), is the first non-Chinese artist who achieved a doctorate in Chinese bird-and-flower painting Art History at The China Academy of Art, Hangzhou. In 2007, Kwon started studying blue and white porcelain decoration from China and Korea and through the study, she developed her body of work Blue and White impressions that analyzes each country’s aesthetic and artistic characteristics. Hyo Bin advocates for the blending of the traditional arts of ceramics and painting, especially the combination of blue and white porcelain and freehand brushwork painting, expanding the traditional space for the development of blue and white porcelain beyond the limit.
Jin Hwan Cho is a painter and architect who "studied" from the University of Pennsylvania, serving as the vice president at the NYKAA. Jin Hwan Cho's interdisciplinary approach to drawing borrows from his professional background in architecture and graphic design. Adopting religious iconography to reframe notions of contemporary spirituality and truth, Jin Hwan Cho's acrylic and mixed media works on canvas impart an earnest call to action in an accessible pop style. Highly graphic in nature, each work is cleanly and skillfully composed. Skull and bird symbols reoccur throughout his oeuvre, amongst overlapping patterns in black, gray, white and gold with pastel accents. Through hybrid, eye-catching compositions rendered in Cho's uniquely tectonic signature, art becomes a socio-cultural tool of universal accessibility.
Seojin Baek obtained MFA and Ph. D in portrait painting of the Department of Chinese Painting, China Academy of Art, China. She currently lives and work in Hangzhou and had numerous solo exhibitions at Yintai Art Gallery, Tangyun Art Gallery, Enze Art Gallery, and Guangda Art Gallery in Wast Lake, Hangzhou. Fish, which often appears in her paintings, means the beginning of alpha (∝) and the first. It also refers to hope or a dream and symbolizes God. In pursuit of creating an image to be listened, the artist invites the audience to appreciate her work with their hearing sense in addition to seeing them. In a sense, her work expresses music performed by a brush and the melodies and paintings to be dedicated to God.
Jee Hui Hong studied Illustration and earned her MFA from the Kookmin University in Seoul and she was featured in significant Solo Exhibitions from prestigious organizations such as LG Art Center, Grand Hyatt Hotel, and ADM Community Gallery. Using everyday objects such as glass bottles, cosmetics, pencils, and mirrors, she manifests the ordinary subject matter into an exquisite mixed media painting. On her canvas, our daily lives come together and become a universe as each element glistens in the open but with a promise of mystery.
Founded in 2017 by Kate Oh, the gallery is devoted to supporting mid-career and emerging artists who work in a range of media including works on paper and paintings to sculpture, performance, and experimental installations. The mission of the gallery is to advocate for the work of the lesser-known artists through exhibitions to introduce them to collectors and to the general public. The exhibition program is both diverse and inclusive, showcasing the works of people around the world. Kate Oh Gallery aims to establish a broad range of partnerships that will create opportunities for artists to expand their practice beyond the museum and gallery walls.