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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Selected Exhibitions

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Solo
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2012
Repetitive Nature, Watchung Arts Center, Watchung, NJ

Squared, McColl Center for Visual Art, Charlotte, NC

2011

Repetitive Nature, Chashama 217 Gallery, New York, NY

2009
Collective senses, Earlville Opera House Gallery, Earlville, NY

2006
Memories of Reconstruction, T-Space, Seoul, Korea

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Group
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2021
Spectrum, Stayhome Gallery, Paris, TN

2020
Contrast, Daall Gallery, Cherry Hill, NJ

2018
Somewhere over the interconnected rainbow, Drawing Room, Jersey City, NJ

2017
The Big Small Show 2015, Drawing Rooms, Jersey City, NJ

Summer Group Show, Art Mora Gallery, Ridgefield Park, NJ

The Art Project, 160 1st Street Gallery, Jersey City, NJ

2016
Seoul_New York Project, Riverside Art Gallery, Hackensack, NJ

2015
WOW II, Art Mora Gallery, New York, NY

2014
Confessions, Belskie Museum, Closter, NJ

Wow Art Show, Crossing 360 Gallery, Flushing, NY

2012
The Line, Reynolds Fine Art Gallery, New Haven, CT

Linear Thinking, Welsh Gallery at Seton Hall Univ., West Orange, NJ

Arc-types and Well-rounded Characters, 371 Studio Gallery, Jersey City, NJ

2011
Drawing into Air, Maum Gallery, New York, NY

Serenity, Blank Space Gallery, New York, NY

2010
NYFA Boot Camp Festival, NYFA Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

Irrelevant: Local Emerging Asian Artists, Arario Gallery New York, NY

Still Present Pasts, Bishop Museum, Hawaii

2009
In Close Formation, Lee Gallery at Clemson University, Clemson, SC

2008
Asian Contemporary Art Fair, Pier 92, New York, NY

Still Present Past, Wing Luke Museum, Seattle, WA

Other, Other, Longwood Arts, Bronx, NY

Accidental Constellation, Gallery Korea, New York, NY

2007
Memories, arts and the war, Total Contemporary Art Museum, Seoul, Korea

Project Diversity Queens, Meatspace Gallery, Long Island City, NY

Still Present Past, Intermedia Arts, Minneapolis, MN

Still Present Past, LA Artcore, Los Angeles, CA

2006
Queens International, Queens Museum of Art, Flushing, NY

Still Present Past, Pro Arts Gallery, Oakland, CA

2005
Unlimited Vision, North Water Street Gallery, Canal Fulton, OH

Still Present Past, Jewett Art Gallery, Wellesley, MA

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