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, 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.
About
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 containing multiple perspectives.