Inhwan Oh
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Inhwan Oh (Korean: 오인환, born 1965) is a contemporary artist born in Seoul, Korea, where he currently lives and works. He attended Seoul National University and the City University of New York. His work, often site specific, utilizes his own identity as a gay Korean man to explore identity, community, and patriarchy. His work has been shown at exhibitions around the world in the last 20 years but are most often seen in South Korea and the United States. He currently teaches and serves as the department chair of the painting department at Seoul National University College of Fine Arts.
Education[edit]
Oh received his BFA (1988) and MFA from the College of Fine Arts at Seoul National University, then went on to obtain a second MFA from CUNY Hunter College 1999.[1]
Personal life[edit]
Oh identifies as a gay man. In 1996 he came out as such while in New York through a public art project. This consisted of five advertisements he published in The Village Voice newspaper, one example being “GKM [Gay Korean Male Artist], Seeking the real Nam June Paik". Oh would change the popular artists he was "seeking" in the other ads.[2]
Awards and residency[edit]
Oh was awarded the Korea Artist Prize in 2015 for his solo exhibition called "Looking Out for Blind Spots". The annual prize is co-organized by the SBS Foundation and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Korea) to sponsor contemporary Korean artists with the potential to advance contemporary Korean art on a global scale.[citation needed]
Oh participated in an artist residency from September to August 2019 at 18th Street Arts Center in Southern California.[3]
Major works[edit]
- Oh's 2009 "The Flag and I" is a shaky video clip of a large Korean flag and flagpole, presumably being held up by someone. As the video continues, more and more of a guttural moaning becomes audible from whoever is working to hold up the large flagpole. Their struggle in physicalized patriotism sounds almost sexual to viewers who cannot see the person holding up the flag. The work discusses nationalism, masculinity, violence, and anonymity in the context of South Korea. The ceremony of saluting the flag and proving patriotism is demonstrated by Oh's work as one that demands sacrifice of the body and soul.[citation needed]
- Oh won the 2015 Korea Artist Prize with his exhibition titled Looking Out for Blind Spots that took many different phases throughout 2014 and 2015, with an emphasis on those who live within the cultural blind spots of society. It was first exhibited in Seoul, and then at two different venues in Los Angeles for his US solo debut.[4] The show involved CCTV footage, Blind gallery docents giving tours of the spaces,[5] and recorded interviews of discharged Korean soldiers, all of which emphasized diverse identities and phenomenon left out of common perspectives, or rather, those who occupy blind spots in society.[citation needed]
- "Where He Meets Him" is a site-specific piece that Inhwan Oh recreates at his multiple exhibitions around the world. Each piece differs depending on the city in which it is exhibited, as Oh writes the names of the gay bars and clubs of the city in incense on the floor of the exhibition.[2] The incense burns throughout the showing, and guests may or may not know what they are looking at depending on their own sexual identity. It is a play on the underground nature of queerness in most communities, where one can be 'in the know', or not. This certain repeated work by Oh has been categorized my scholar Jung-Ah Woo as "Anti-monumental", speaking to Korea's taboos surrounding homosexuality with roots in strict Confucianism.[2]
Exhibitions[edit]
Major solo exhibitions[edit]
- 2014: Looking Out for Blind Spots, Space WILLING N DEALING, Gallery Factory, Seoul, Korea
- 2012: Street Writing Project, Sindoh Art Space, Seoul, Korea
- 2009: TRAnS, Art Sonje Center, Seoul, Korea
- 2002: Smoldering Relations, Mills College Art Museum in Oakland, US
Major group exhibitions[edit]
- 2014: A Room of His Own: Masculinities in Korea and the Middle East, Art Sonje Center, Seoul, Korea
- 2014: Spectrum-Spectrum, Plateau, Seoul, Korea
- 2014: SPACE CRAFT : Interface and Potential Space, Seoul Olympic Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
- 2012: Dislocation, Daegu Art Museum, Daegu, Korea
- 2012: Playground, Arko Art Center, Seoul, Korea
Source:[5]
References[edit]
- ↑ Kwon, Sowon. "Inhwan Oh". 4columns.org. Retrieved 2023-04-09.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Woo, Jung-Ah (2023-02-01). "The Antimonumental Impulse in Korean Contemporary Art". Getty Research Journal. 17: 125–154. doi:10.1086/724141. ISSN 1944-8740.
- ↑ "Inhwan Oh August 14 - September 29, 2019". 18th Street Arts Center. Retrieved 2023-04-10.
- ↑ Kwon, Sowon. "Inhwan Oh". 4columns.org. Retrieved 2023-04-10.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "#6 Art that Earn One's Keep". koreaartistprize.org. Retrieved 2023-04-09.
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