Michael Joo 87-07

Joo is a substantial monograph on the work of American/Korean artist Michael Joo surveying all his finished projects, as well as some preliminary work, since his graduation in 1991. Joo describes his art as ＂a complex network of non-hierarchic information＂ with several layers of meaning that trigger multiple associations, and the book includes his extended captions alongside each project. Michael Joo works in a wide range of media, including sculpture, installation, animation and performance-based video art. His work frequently investigates themes centring around questions of identity, juxtaposing Eastern spiritualism with the Western way of understanding the world. Fascinated by the interaction between nature and its surroundings, Joo also has a profound interest in scientific processes. Thematically, his projects explore dualities such as linear and cyclical, physical and metaphysical, real and unreal, natural and unnatural, often using a visual language which combines highly complex geometric and structural patterns with ’real’ objects - bodily fluids, eggs and mosquitoes - from nature.

Born in Ithaca, New York in 1966, Joo obtained a BFA from Washington University in 1989, followed by an MFA in Sculpture from Yale University in 1991. In 1994 his work was included in the internationally acclaimed group show, ’Some Went Mad, Some Ran Away’, curated by Damien Hirst for the Serpentine Gallery. His artwork is included in the collections of such international institutions as the Guggenheim Museum and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Joo has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions worldwide, including the Venice Biennale, 1993 and 2001, Whitney Biennial, NY, 2000, Anton Kern Gallery, NY, 2002, the Bohen Foundation, NY, 2005, Rodin Gallery, Seoul, 2006, Milan Triennale Bovisa, 2006, Denver Art Museum, 2006 and the Gwangju Biennale, South Korea 2006 where he was co-recipient of the Grand Prize for his installation, ’Bodhi Obfuscatus...’ He lives and works in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Forthcoming shows include an exhibition at the Anton Kern Gallery, New York.