Spirit of Life: InJung Oh

Art Exhibit Reception

Please join us in the Quiet Reading Room on Wednesday, June 12, from 6:30–7:30 p.m. to meet InJung Oh, view her work, and enjoy light refreshments.

InJung Oh’s pieces exist as spaces where symbols and abstractions are animated with meaning. Oh creates psychological moments of reflection and balance in the face of a world filled with tensions—gendered, cultural, and spiritual—and explores complicated multiplicities, particularly those pertaining to her identity.

Raised in a traditional Korean family, she now lives with a Chinese family in a Western society. In her work, Oh reaches beyond preexisting symbols; she creates them.

One of Oh’s distinctive symbols is a visual representation of the female figure as a beacon for herself. Envisioning the female figure floating in the sky like a blooming flower, Oh started her Volossom project. The artist combines “vol-” (which means wish or will) and “blossom,” into a word that means “blossom as a manifestation of wish or will.” 

The sense of balance she seeks is also dependent upon physicality. In her Sculptural Painting series, Oh cuts into the canvas and dips it in layers of media to gradually solidify the material, working with gravity to make a sculpture. In her Leaves of Life series, she blows colors across canvas; the concentration it takes Oh to control her breath is meditative, filling the moment with peace.

Please join us in the Quiet Reading Room on Wednesday, June 12, from 6:30–7:30 p.m. to meet InJung Oh, view her work, and enjoy light refreshments. Our National Parks lecture begins downstairs at 7:00 p.m.; patrons are welcome to attend both events.

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