Artist's Biography
Born and raised in Seoul, Korea, Injoo Whang received a BFA in Korean traditional painting from Hong-Ik University in Seoul, Korea and a MFA from Parsons School of Design in New York City. She has been a fellow at Vermont Studio Center with a full fellowship, Constance Saltonstall Foundation, the Anderson Center for Interdisciplinary Studies with a grant from Jerome Fellowship, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts and PS 122 in NYC. Whang has been awarded Urban Artist Initiative grant in NYC and participated Artist as Entrepreneur Boot Camp at NYFA. Her work has exhibited in numerous venues including Queens Museum of Art in NY; LA Artcore in CA, McColl Center for Visual Art in NC and Lee Gallery, Clemson University in SC. Injoo Whang currently lives and works in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.
Artist's Statement
In my work, I explore the supposed binaries of the individual and the collective, of positive and negative spaces, of full and void, of simplicity and complexity. I imagine their interconnectedness through drawings, paintings, collages and installations using sumi ink and water based paints on paper.
My work starts from a single pattern, cut-out paper or mark making that I repetitively accumulate to create a larger whole. When tiny and seemingly insignificant individual pieces are gathered together, they generate a powerful collective body filled with visual illusions. Labor-intensive and meditative processes pay homage to invisible time and labor.
I take architectural elements and recompose them into geometric, minimal and abstract landscapes. Informed by Korean landscape painting traditions, there is no singular focal point. The viewer is instead invited to roam within the work, which is intended to be a contemplative space with multiple perspectives.
Artist's Bibliography
2015
Min, Dami, "Interview with Injoo Whang", Mom and I, February 1
2009
Rushworth, Catherine, "Engaging exhibitions with little in common at Earlville Opera House", Syracuse.com, June 29
2008
Liem, Ramsay, "War and the Art of Remembering: Korean Americans and the 'Forgotten War'", International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, Vol. 3
Liu, Marian, "In New Wing Luke Exhibit, Korean Americans Make Peace with the 'Forgotten War'", The Seattle Times, December 23
2007
Vickery, Martha, "History through Art", Korean Quarterly, Spring
Sidae, Misul, "Memories of reconstruction", January
"Exhibition review: Injoo Whang", Lemon Tree, January
2006
Kim, Rose, "The past in the present", KoreAm Journal, March
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