Opening Reception: Thursday September 12, 2013    

 

Gallery HO is pleased to announce the opening of Urban Façade, a solo exhibition by Heejung Cho, on September 12, 2013. Urban Façade, curated by Liz Kwon, presents a selection of the artist’s major works including wood reliefs and mixed media collages. Recreating urban cityscapes of New York, the artist transforms ordinary streets and buildings into dynamic art pieces.  Heejung Cho, having majored in sculpture, has extensively worked on wood reliefs throughout her artistic career. She reconstructs the familiar urban scenes in dramatic and unexpected ways. In particular, the Brooklyn brownstone building series is one of her most exhibited series. She presents common objects such as windows and stairs and exaggerates them in dramatic perspectives, transforming the familiar suddenly unfamiliar. She explores an optical illusion between two and three dimensions and brings a whole new perspective to New York cityscapes.  The process of creating wood relief sculpture involves stacking of plywood in multi-layers to accentuate the architectural features. The artist incorporates painting and collage techniques and creates a miniature of her own cityscape. Her recent works using plaster that fills in the gaps between the layers of plywood as well as the ones covering the entire surface of plywood will be presented in the exhibition for the first time. Along with these works, there will be an installation of a three dimensional sculpture of a façade on the gallery floor. Through the process of recreating the urban cityscape in her work, the artist allows the viewers to take a moment to reflect on their own city.

 

 

Heejung Cho BIO 

Heejung Cho is a sculptor and installation artist born in Seoul, Korea. Cho received her BFA from Seoul National University in Korea and her MFA from Mason Gross School of Arts, Rutgers University in New Jersey. Currently she lives in Brooklyn and works at her studio in the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts in Manhattan. Her work has been widely exhibited in Korea, China and the U.S., including solo exhibitions at Gallery HO in Chelsea, NY, Earlville Opera House in NY, Watchung Art Center in NJ, Chashama Times Square Gallery in NY and Brainfactory Gallery in Korea. She participated in the artist-in-residency programs at Newark Museum, the Vermont Studio Center on a full fellowship, Beijing Studio Center and Triangle Workshop, Artist in Marketplace of Bronx Museum and Painting Studio 122. She was awarded with an AHL Foundation Award, the Dodge Faoundation Fellowship and the Art Council Korea fund in the last 5 years.