Sook Jin Jo 조 숙진 (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, sculptural assemblages, performances and site-specific installations that reveal two abiding, interconnected thematic concerns. Formally, her works combine a strong, almost minimalist, sense of pure structure with an intensely sensual love of rough-hewn materials. Conceptually, they invite a meditative (and sometimes physical) interaction with asymmetrical balances and unexpected harmonies of color, texture and shape. Form, meaning, and effect are thus united by a single spiritual purpose: reclamation – a secure conviction of the latent visual seductiveness of humble materials.

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, Cy Twombly and Jennifer Bartlett. Her work has been the subject of 22 solo exhibitions and over 100 group exhibitions, including "A Mid-Career Survey of the Work of Sook Jin Jo: A 20 Year Encounter with Wood" at Arko Art Center, Seoul (2007), the Lodz Biennale, Poland (2004), the Gwangju Biennale (2004), the Smithsonian Institute, Washington, DC (2003), the Art Museum, Florida International University, Miami (2002), the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Korea, Kwacheon, Korea (2002), the Socrates Sculpture Park, New York (1999), Il Min Museum, Seoul (1998).

Her work was featured in the 2006 publication of A Sculpture Reader: Contemporary Sculpture Since 1980 (ISC/ University of Washington Press) and the 1994 and 2002 publications of The History of Korean Contemporary Art; 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, Flash Art, Art Asia Pacific.

Sook Jin Jo has received a public art commission for the new L.A. Metro Detention Center project from the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department (2004); Hachonghyun Foundation Award in Korea (2008); Residency Fellowships from the Sacatar Foundation in Brazil (2007, 2001); a Site-Specific Sculpture Fellowship from Global Arts Village in India (2005); a grant from the Korean Culture and Arts Foundation in Korea (2004); an Artist Fellowship from the Stone Quarry Hill Art Park in New York (2000); an Artist Fellowship from the Socrates Sculpture Park in New York (1999); a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant in New York (1996); and a Korea Arts Foundation of America (KAFA) award in California (1993).

Her work can be found in private and public collections, including the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Korea, the Erie Museum of Art in Erie, Pennsylvania, Arko Art Center in Seoul, Korea, the João Ubaldo Ribeiro School in Itaparica, Brazil, the Stone Quarry Hill Art Park in Cazenovia, New York, the Housatonic Museum of Art in Westport, Connecticut and the Martin Z. Margulies Collection in Miami, Florida.