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Jean Oh: Right Around the Corner

December 11, 2021–January 29, 2022

Iron Velvet is pleased to announce the opening of an apartment gallery space programmed by Young Jeon, on December 11. The inaugural exhibition, Right around the corner, will feature Brooklyn-based artist Jean Oh's paintings, drawings, objects and silk curtain works that seek human narrative, presence and/or the absence of humanity.

Oh will debut new works created for Iron Velvet as a site-responsive exhibition from the thought of coexistence of home and gallery, between the barest original and selective revealing. The work reflects the different troubles Oh encounters in relationships; just like having a handful of sand, the more one squeezes, the more sand escapes through the fingers. This continuous struggle between Oh’s behaviors of release and refrain represents itself within the canvas through repetitive forms and processes of overlapping elements of paint, cutting out, reshaping, reforming and reattaching.

 

Her figures and forms are rendered in simple gestures on an unfinished canvas ground. They appear incomplete, a sort of visual marginalia. And yet, this unfinished state is a remarkably generous one: through it, we are drawn into her process, the mark of her hand as it renders and obscures and re-renders.

 

Oh uses graphite and acrylic sparingly on the canvas, which brings her substrate materials into the forefront of her pictorial conversations. Raw canvas and stitching become field and line, interplaying with her rendered objects and figures. By placing unrelated abstract and figurative elements together, Oh seeks to engage in an act of subtle disruption. However, some anchors within her tempests reveal themselves in the form of specific objects, offering momentary respite. The logic within Oh’s chaotic scenes whispers its secrets, albeit selectively, to the patient listener.

Jean Oh

Jean Oh (b. 1993) is an artist living and working in Brooklyn, New York. Her work provides a base for the viewers to experience the sensitive, emotional statue. The state focuses on the inescapable constant disturbance that changes by relationships and places she belongs. It is expressed by presenting subtle ambivalences and contrasting textures, shapes, and lines. She holds a BFA from MICA (Maryland Institute College of Art) and an MFA from Pratt Institute. She has been featured in Saatchi Art'’ Rising Stars Report 2019. She also has been selected as the winner of the Silver Award for the AHL-T&W Foundation Contemporary Visual Art Awards. Oh has had solo exhibitions at NARS Foundation in Brooklyn, NY, and the Steuben Gallery in Brooklyn, NY. Her work presented by numerous group shows in the USA: 2021 Transitions (NeueHouse, New York, NY; ) 2020 Something from Nothing Art (Space 776 Gallery, New York, NY;) 2019 Domestic Affairs (AHL Foundation Project Space, New York, NY)

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