Grounding; Grounded; Ground

In this exhibition of new works, Ara Koh centers clay as a protagonist Earthly and human in nature. The exhibition considers how clay remembers similarly to both the body and the landscape. Clay is able to record and recall the pressure of hands and fingers, the presence of moisture, as it surrenders to heat.

Koh uses clay excavated and shaped with her own hands to create sculpted works that explore new notions of landscape painting. This line of inquiry informs her studio practice’s wide range of outcomes, from fired clay vessels to unfired clay on unstretched canvas, from freestanding forms to draping, wall-hung terrains. Together, the works on view explore ideas of fullness and emptiness, tactility and memory, stillness and motion, representation and abstraction, flatness and volume.

Artist

Ara Koh (b. Seoul, South Korea; lives and works in Washington, DC) earned her MFA in Ceramic Art at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, Alfred, NY (2020), and BFA in Ceramics and Glass from Hongik University, Seoul, South Korea (2018).