featured artists
moving rooms with nomadic views
Read the room with Jong Oh and improvise between the lines.
Having explored many remote locations, Jong Oh felt a sense of exhilaration while adapting to entirely new environments. It was this insatiable curiosity for the unfamiliar that drew him to graduate studies in NYC. Despite being met with a place far older and more chaotic than the clean, sophisticated, and cutting-edge city he had imagined, Jong sensed something distinctly human and comforting amidst the timeworn skyscrapers and restless flow. With his intrepid backpacker spirit restored, he embraced the thrill of beginning a new chapter in such a vibrant setting.
One of Jong’s landmark early experiences was his participation in the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) residency in 2012. Held on Governors Island, shuttling to and from the deserted village by ferry at specific hours offered him a rare sense of calm. During that uncanny, cherished, and deeply formative period, he photographed the interiors of abandoned houses and experimented with installations using the island’s trees.
Though NYC’s lofty living costs required him to juggle multiple part time jobs, the dense coexistence of artists and exhibitions felt like paradise to Jong. The countless shows he visited, the conversations he shared, and the incredible buzz that surged through the city nourished him creatively, even in the most challenging of times. The bright, unguarded passion of young talents who came to NYC to pursue their dreams became the foundation for his own artistic beginnings: a privilege he holds dear to this day.
NYC’s high rents also required Jong to move between small apartments and studios shared with friends. This transient way of life compelled him to own little, improvise constantly, and adjust to new circumstances as they arose. It shaped his artistic language, resulting in works that are spontaneous, ephemeral, and drawing-like in character. In one instance, Jong’s site-specific installation series entitled Room Drawing unfolds across an entire space, responding with great sensitivity to architectural elements such as doors, windows, columns, cracks, holes, stains, and shadows. It reflects Jong’s almost nomadic existence as he travels the world with a single suitcase, creating and exhibiting wherever the fancy takes him.
For Jong, the built environment is a source of materiality and inspiration, inseparable from the work itself. Indeed, he manipulates simple materials such as thread, graphite, wood, metal rods, weights, and acrylic sheets into delicately poised compositions that interact with their architectural surroundings. His installations, including those exhibited at ThisWeekendRoom in Seoul, continue to experiment with light and shadow. They invite spectators to reflect upon the limits of perception as well as the spatial and temporal complexity that, in unison, constitute a unique and nuanced understanding of the world around them.
