Statement
COCOJ's work arises from her own merging of visual traditions wrought from her East Asian lineage and Western experience. Evoking coded landscapes and meticulously layered architectural renderings, taking influences from religious narratives and social catastrophes, to talk about the political consequences of media manipulation.
There are four bodies of work in dialog. The Centric series "Life". is developed after her own first-hand experience of Foot-and -Mouth Diseases (FMD) outbreak (2008), after which she began to question the economy of food and health in our society and an ignorance and a mistreatment toward weakness within our social setting. On the other side of the dialog is the supportive series "Banknote" (2009), "The Fight Club" (2010), and "Body (2008-)". She recomposes the idealized iconography of real international currency, imageries from the media, and her personal collections to reveal an underlying narrative of social catastrophe.
Her series are formally engaging, rigorous and labor-intensive works that reference on the hand the vertical spaces and textured expanses of Asian scroll painting landscapes, while simultaneously calling to mind the heavily etched lines influenced by Western print masters. Her collection of pieces requires close examination: a slow, careful review akin to the study of evidence such a forensic visual investigation prompts the exploration of different approaches to morality through the highly detailed spaces of an East/ West hybrid, filtered through her deft hand and careful and sensitive renderings.
Overall, she references the crawling television news ticker, which she interprets as the bearer of real information in the face of the distracting, manipulating spectacles of eh images "Breaking" on the screen.
Bio
cocoj (b.) 1982, Seoul, South Korea, attended The School of the Art Institute of Chicago for her BFA on Painting and Drawing, Maryland Institute College of Art for her Post-Baccalaureate Certificate, studied Printmaking focus on an etching at the Art Student League of New York for three years, and Pratt Institute for her MFA on Painting. She has exhibited her works in the United States. Her most recent exhibitions includes "Hidden in Plain Sight", OH ART FOUNDATION, Chicago, Illinois (2019), "Tiny Acts Topple Empires", The Woskob Family Gallery, State College, Pennsylvania (2018), "Unsettled, The Korean Cultural Center New York, New York (2016), "UNDERLINE:RECENT WORKS BY JUDY YANG", and WHITEBOX Art Space, New York City (2015), "A Politics of Drawing: Proposal for a Method of Transformation" Barbara Walters Gallery, Bronxville, New York (2014), and Skidmore Contemporary Art Gallery, Santa Monica, California (2014). Yang has been the recipient of the Full Fellowship, the Vermont Studio Center (2013) and the Endangered Art and Photograph, 1st prize in the Fine Art, Miami, Florida (2013). Joo Yeon Judy Yang is based in Long Island City, New York.
CV
EDUCATION
2012 Master of Fine Arts, Painting. Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York.
2006 Post-Baccalaureate. Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, Maryland.
2005 Bachelor of Fine Arts, Painting and Drawing. School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2019 Hidden in Plain Sight, OH ART Foundation. Chicago, Illinois.
2015 UNDERLINE: RECENT WORKS BY JUDY YANG, WhiteBox, New York, New York.
2012 The Pratt Studios Gallery, Brooklyn, New York
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2018 Tiny Acts Topple Empires, The Woskob Family Gallery, State College, Pennsylvania.
2016 Unsettled, The Korean Cultural Center New York, New York.
Artists Co-Op III, Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning, Jamaica, New York.
2015 Luminous Coordinates, Hutchins Gallery, Brookville, New York.
Illegal Souvernirs, Field Projects, New York, New York.
2014 A Politics of Drawing: Proposal for a Method of Transformation, Barbara Walters Gallery, Bronxville, New York.
Skidmore Contemporary Art Gallery, Santa Monica, California.
Bridging the Gap, QCC Art Gallery, Bayside, New York.
2013 The Select Fair, Torus Collective. South Beach , Miami, Florida.
The New Contemporary Vienna International Art Fair, Shirin Gallery. Messe Wien, Vienna.
Curate NYC Top 150, Rush Arts Gallery, New York, New York.
Intern Project Exhibition, Freight+Volume Gallery, New York, New York.
2012 Bridging the Gap, Flushing Town Hall, Flushing, New York.
2011 CurateNYC 2011, Rush Arts Gallery, New York, New York.
Contemporary Female Mythologies, Primo Piano LivinGallery for Contemporary Art, Lecce, Italy.
2009 Anima Mundi, Primo Piano LivinGallery for Contemporary Art, Lecce, Italy.
2008 Lift Off!, Plant Zero, Richmond Virginia.
GRANTS, AWARDS & RESIDENCIES
2016 Mass MoCA Assets for Artists Residency. Artist in Residence. North Adams, Massachusetts.
The Vermont Studio Center. Artist in Residence. Johnson, Vermont.
Mass MoCA Assets for Artists Residency. Artist in Residence., North Adams, Massachusetts.
2013 The ENDANGERED Art and Photography. First Prize in the Fine Art, Miami, Florida.
The Vermont Studio Center. Artist in Residency Full Fellowship, Johnson, Vermont.
Pratt Institute. The Circle Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement, Brooklyn, New York.
2010 Pratt Institute. First Year Scholarship, Brooklyn, New York.
2005 Maryland Art Institute College of Art. Merit Scholarship, Baltimore, Maryland.