Works at: Seoul Art Space_GeumCheon
Stays in: 2014
Genre : Photography, Video
Education
2008 MFA Korea National University of Arts. Seoul, Korea
2003 B.A Korean National University of Arts. Seoul, Korea
Solo Exhibition
2014 ‘in the field’ / Contemporary Art and Sprits (CAS) / Osaka, Japan
2013 in the barley field / 43inverness street gallery, London, UK
2011 Pool Production 'The Holy Landscape' / Art Space Pool, Seoul, Korea
2006 Second Individual Exhibition: Oak Jung Ho- 'FREE PLASTIC' / Gallery 175, Seoul, Korea
2005 Insa Art Space Invitation: Oak Jung Ho Solo Show/ Insa Art Space of the Arts Council Korea, Seoul, Korea
Selected Group Exhibitions
2014 Changwon Sculpture Biennale/ Changwon Moonshin Museum of Art/ Cangwon, Korea
2013Re-photography/ Artspace NEMO, Seoul, Korea humor:us/ Space K, Seoul, Korea
2012 so-we-side[suicide]with you/ Art Space Pool, Seoul, Korea
2012 Urban Wanderers/ SHINSEGAE Gallery, Seoul, Korea
2012 Unfinished Journey/ Cais Gallery / Seoul, Korea
2012 PLAY TIME – Exercise of Doing / Culture Station Seoul 284
2012 Image and Text - Ut Pictura Poesis/ One and J gallery/ Seoul, Korea
2012 ARTSPECTRUM 2012/ Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art / Seoul, Korea
2011Prohibition of excavation / Art Space pool / Seoul, Korea
2011 A4 DEMO / project space LAB39/ Seoul, Korea
2010 Oh! Masterpieces / Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art / Gyeonggido, Korea
2009Peppermint Candy : Contemporary Art from Korea in Seoul / National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea
2009 New political art in Korea / Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art / Gyeonggido, Korea
2009 10thSsamzieSpace open studio / Ssamzie Space / Seoul, Korea
2008"Gangjeong Village Project" / Gangjeong Village, Seogwipo City, Jeju island, Korea
2008 Seoul Design Olympiad 2008 home outside home-street Art Festival/ Olympic Stadium, Seoul, Korea
2008 Art in Busan 2008: Come back to Harbor Busan/ Busan Museum of Modern Art, Busan, Korea
2008 MoA Cineforum 4 : Digital Portfolio / Museum of Art Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea
2008 Contemporary Korean Art - "Peppermint Candy" 'Museo Nacional deBellas Artes Buenos Aires (MNBA) / Buenos Aires, Argentina
2008 "Everyday is not the same" / Biz Art / Shanghai, China
2007Chmuro Project / Seoul Film Commission / Seoul , Korea
2007 Anyang Public Art Project 2007/ Anyang, Korea
2007 Contemporary Korean Art - "Peppermint Candy" / 'Museo de Arte Contemporaneo(MAC)' / Santiago, Chile
2007 DIVA ART FAIR/ New York, USA
2007 "Rost Stop" / The Walsh Gallery, Chicago, USA
2006 Seoul International Photography Festival- Photo Ludens / Dukwon Gallery, Seoul, Korea
2005 Fake Museum- Retrospective Exhibition: Oak Jung Ho / Arko Art Center, Seoul, Korea
2005 Project 139- Clearing the Field of Fire / Ilmin Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
2004 Manifesto of the Situation Exhibition / Korean Democracy Foundation Gallery, Seoul, Korea
2004 New Face / Dukwon Gallery, Seoul, Korea
2004 Art in Culture 2004 New Face / Art in Culture, Seoul, Korea
2003The First New City Exhibition- "Where Do You Live" / Ilsan MBC, Seoul, Korea
2003 Name / Alt Space Loop, Seoul, Korea
2003 Alternative Space Pool New Artists Exhibition- Be Bright / Alternative Space Pool, Seoul, Korea
2002 Kwanhoon Special Exhibition-Image Maker 'GAM' / Kwanhoon Gallery, Seoul, Korea
2002 Reality Bites 02.Alt Space Loop, Seoul, Korea
Residencies
2014 Artist of Seoul Art Space KeumChen/ Seoul, Korea
2013 Glenfidditch Artist in Residency Program/ Duff Town, UK
2011 Mongin Art Space Studio Progra/ Seoul, Korea
2010 18thStreetArtCenter, SantaMonica/ CA,USA
2008 SSamzie Space Studio Program/ Seoul, Korea
Curatorial projects, Publishing
Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art/ Gyeongg Do, korea
in the barley field, 1 channel video ,
7`08``, 2013
Supported Headstand Pose- Salamba Shirshasana, Archival Pigment Print, 145*174cm, 2011
Standing Bow Pulling Pose- Dandayamana Dhanurasana, Archival Pigment Print, 127*152cm, 2011
One-Legged King Pigeon Pose- Pada Rajakapotasana, Archival Pigment Print, 127*152cm, 2011
Supported Armstand Pose- Shirshasana, Archival Pigment Print, 127*152cm, 2011
Replay, photograph, Archival Pigment Print, 40*160cm, 2011
About the Recent Works of Ok Joeng Ho
Kim Yoon Kyoeng, independent planner
On October 17, I met the artist, Ok Jeong Ho again, when a month had elapsed since his solo exhibition <Hamartia> in September. The talks which have been going on in this meeting are mainly about the meaning generated by the works shown at the new solo exhibition after a long interval.
Since the works created in 2001 when he made the church spire and the dome of the National Assembly Building into the hats, put them on his head, and filmed himself as if taking a commemorative photograph, the artist exists in the center of his works. The artist's own images appearing in his works using the photographs and images function as the language, symbol, and instrument which ridicule, tease, and despise the institution, power and value system which seem to be weird, twisted in itself. What are created by the fixed idea, that is, what are placed on our subconscience in the process of being provided by someone, are objectified as a sort of fantasy and then caricatured through his exaggerated looks and gestures. But, I think his works which burst out laughing uncontrollably through placing himself in the ridiculous, silly situation were read rather as a light, pleasant attempt of the emerging new generation differentiating themselves from other generations in terms of view of the world, than as a attempt to show the artist's sharp consciousness on the reality at the time. So, the extraordinary attempt of this artist belonging to new generation perhaps might be seen only as light, pleasant.
After that, the artist moved to a new stage, and I discovered this turning point in his solo exhibition <Sacred Landscape> in 2011. That was a series of photographs exhibited together with the landscape photographs taking the weirdly twisted every day's life with a long vertical screen. Through these photo series exposing the pain of the extreme performance practicing yoga in tidal mudflat, he showed his attempt to go head to head with the chaos and obsession of the reality by making the artist's existence a steppingstone, which was already appeared from his early works. His behavior which practised yoga by moving actually his body and then transformed the results of the practice into the severe situation kept somewhat distance from the earlier works which made a fool of himself. In the work, his laughing face was contorted with pain. And the behavior as a asceticism became a sort of physical responsibility and then, tied up the artist to the weight of reality. His attempt that seems to punish himself beyond making a fool of himself who is lethargic to the unreasonable and unjust world, in this account, was unfamiliar to quite a few people.
After some time has passed again, he returned with his new work, <Hamartia>. In the work, we have to pay attention to the fact that he creates the point which the pleasure 10 years ago and his recent painful practice encounter happily. The violent situation forced on him in the working felt more severe and brutal than the yoga practice in the tidal mudflat. But, the serene expression on his face which accommodates himself to the painful behavior forced repeatedly on his body and embrace it thoroughly is so serene that it seems to make a fool of the assailant's toil and the violent situation forced on him. This may be a sort of a life-staking sense of humor ridiculing the overall situation for good measure, accepting the unreasonable violence 'enthusiastically' than the assailant who forces an intolerable pain on him. As he appeared slowly in the background of the landscape which somewhat looked sacred, this humor seemed to be strengthened further with his smile which the artist wearing the same clothes made.
While the inevitably twisted face in <Sacred landscape> which chooses the way enduring the different kinds of pain to be free from pain shows the complex feelings of the artist who perceives finally the weight of reality that can't escape from and is held hostage to reality, the smile spreading lightly into his lips at a time when he appears spreading out his arms is linked to the ultimate humor incapacitating the irrationality through inversely forcing all the irrationalities binding him on himself in the name of 'pain'. This is the return of Ok Jeong Ho style humor. That is the reason that we look forward to his next attempt from now on.
