Sook Jin Jo

Sook Jin Jo 조숙진 (b. Gwangju, Korea) has received M.F.A.'s from Hong-Ik University, Korea and from the Pratt Institute, New York. Known primarily for her work with wood, over the past 20 years Sook Jin Jo has produced drawings, collages, photographs, sculptural assemblages, performances and site-specific installations. Whatever the medium, Jo’s works evoke a spiritual, meditative and contemplative response in the viewer’s experience of them. Jo moved to New York City in 1988 and had her first New York solo show at the O.K. Harris Works of Art (1990) and that same year appeared in the Art Today, a documentary video featuring thirteen artists, including Jenny Holzer, Ilya Kavakov, Cindy Sherman and Jennifer Bartlett. Jo has exhibited internationally since 1984, and has been the subject of 27 solo exhibitions in the United States, Europe and Asia, including “A Mid-Career Survey of the Work of Sook Jin Jo" at the Arko Art Center, Seoul (2007) and over 100 group exhibitions, including the “Lodz Biennale”, Lodz, Poland; the “Gwangju Biennale”, Gwangju, Korea; the Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C.; and the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Korea, Kwacheon, Korea. Her work is featured in the publications: The Martin Z. Margulies Collection: Painting and Sculpture , published by the Margulies Foundation in 2008 and A Sculpture Reader: Contemporary Sculpture Since 1980 published by ISC/ University of Washington Press in 2006; and has been published in many newspapers, magazines and books, including Art in America, Art News, Sculpture, The New York Times, Newsday, The Miami Herald,The Washington Post. She is a recipient of the iaab residency fellowship (Christoph Merian Stifung Foundation), Basel, Switzerland; the Hachonghyun Foundation National Artist Award in Seoul, Korea; a Pollock–Krasner Foundation Grant in New York City; the Sacatar Foundation residency fellowship in Brazil; Socrates Sculpture Park artsit fellowship; and a Korea Arts Foundation of America (KAFA) award in Santa Monica, California. Her public installations include permanent installations in downtown Los Angeles (commissioned by the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs), the Global Arts Village in New Delhi, India, and the Stone Quarry Art Park in Cazenovia, NY. Her work can be found in private and public collections, including the Erie Museum of Art in Erie, Pennsylvania; the Housatonic Museum of Art in Westport, Connecticut; Arko Art Center in Seoul, Korea; the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Korea; Girlsclub Collection in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; and the Martin Z. Margulies Collection in Miami, Florida. Sook Jin Jo has been a lecturer or panelist at numerous universities and art organizations, including The New School/ Parsons School of Design, New York; “Americans For the Arts” annual convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and The institute of International Education, United States Department of State, Washington D.C. She lives and works in New York City.