Michael Joo is a Korean-American contemporary artist born in 1966 in Ithaca, New York.
Early life and education
Michael Joo was born into a Korean family in 1966. Joo's parents were both scientists. He studied Biology at Wesleyan University but felt disconnected with the subject. Joo practiced art in parallel while continuing his studies. He graduated with a BFA from Washington University, St.Louis, 1989, and he later received his MFA from the Yale School of Art, in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1991. Joo worked in Vienna, Austria, at a company that specialized in seed science.
Art
As an artist, Michael Joo employs a variety of media such as: sculpture; painting; photography; and printmaking. His work reflects on identity, cultural heritage, and natural history. Joo's work explores juxtapositions between multiple elements: science and religion, nature versus human intervention, reality against fiction, class within culture, and intentionality and accidents. “Single Breath Transfer” “Single breath transfer” was an exhibit held from November 30 to December 31, 2017. Joo breathes into paper and plastic bags, capturing the ephemeral moment by freezing the bags with liquid nitrogen or wax. The work refers to a medical test that examines the lungs ability to convert oxygen from the surrounding atmosphere. “Still Lives” This solo exhibition held in 2005 traces the artist's 18-day, 400-mile journey along the route of the Trans-Alaska pipeline. The exhibition consists of life-size caribou sculptures hanging on a wall in a spiral formation with their bellies opened. While images and videos of roads of mountain scenery and sculptures of caribous may reference the Arctic, he was also exploring number of philosophical ideas throughout the work. His works melds geometric and organic, interior and exterior by placing arranging different works into a single space and allowing the audience to experience everything simultaneously. “Visible” “Visible” is a work of art that displays a headless, transparent buddha statue that is posed on top of a platform. The inside of the statue recreates of the insides of a human body. The materials that were used for this artwork were: urethane, nylon, plastic, steel, glass, and painted steel. “Nunchakas” Nunchakas is a work that describes an Asian weapon, nunchucks, that consists of two wooden clubs attached to each from one end to the other by a chain. Joo substituted the wooden parts using terra-cotta. On which a dense coat of green watercress was grown. This work juxtaposes destruction, growth and life. The overall work shows the idea of yin-yang, life and destruction.
Selected Exhibitions and Awards
Solo exhibitions 2019: Project: Michael Joo, February 9, 2019 – March 16, 2019, , Chicago, US 2017: Michael Joo, , KR Michael Joo, , Barcelona, ES Seven Sins, , New York, NY 2013: Michael Joo, M Building, Art Basel Miami Beach 2013, Miami, US 2009: , New York, US Bodhi Obfuscatus, Chelsea Art Museum, New York, US 2006: Michael Joo, Rodin Gallery, Seoul, KR Group exhibitions 2019: Reason Gives No Answers: Selected Works from the Collection, Newport Street Gallery, London, UK 2016: , Anyang-si, KR Still Barbarians, Curated by Koyo Kouoh, EVA International Biennale 2016, Limerick, IE Force of Nature, , Brussels, BE 2010: Have You Ever Really Looked at the Sun?, Haunch of Venison, Berlin, DE The Infinite Starburst of Your Cold Dark Eyes, , Seoul, KR Dirty Kunst, , London, UK Awards 2006: United States Artists Fellowship 2006: Grand Prize, 6th Gwangju Biennale 2006 2003: American Center Foundation Grant 2002: LEF Foundation 2001: Warhol Foundation Grant 2000: Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters' and Sculptors' Grant 1998: John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship
