Beauty is everywhere. Everything is beautiful as it is. The artist, Sook Jin Jo, finds beauty from found materials and creates new aesthetics from them.

The ‘Shanghai Black’ series are assemblages made from salvaged pieces of plywood. Jo looks for beauty that no one else finds and transforms it into great works of art. Plywood in different shapes that were made in different places at different times for different purposes come together and create a textured relief. It changes its form and makes a new history. The process of the rebirth of the plywood is the process of finding unrevealed beauty.

‘Beyond the Clouds’, painted with watercolor, gouache, ink and collaged on rice paper, shows a notion of Asian beauty. From old times in Asian philosophy, clouds in the sky symbolize an ideal world of human beings that live together with nature. This series shows a longing for this utopia. It also represents the beauty of space and moderation that interconnects with western minimalism and abstraction at the same time.

‘Frames’ overwhelms audiences as they walk into the gallery space. Made with countless empty frames that were once filled with memories, ‘Frames’ conveys stories and feelings of the past to viewers, and then becomes the present moment. ‘Frames’ is not only an installation, but an interactive theatrical piece.

Korean-born New York based artist Sook Jin Jo presents a discernment of the world we live in throughout her work. Consumer culture that leads to dissipation, pollution and the endless desires of human beings are the issues that the artist deals with. Especially the series executed in Shanghai where she was recently in residency. These works reflect the characteristics of the city: complexities of East and West, old and new, socialism and capitalism.

Asian Art Works Beijing curates Sook Jin Jo’s solo exhibition ‘Rebirth’ to bring awareness to all the beauty we are missing in life - to enlighten us to the cycle of life of all creations.

缺乏美感的事物在这个世界上存在吗？未知的事物是新鲜的，触手可及的物体是我们所熟悉的，陈旧的事物则承载着我们的回忆，所以万物皆美好。更何况，我们所遗弃的物品还留有岁月的痕迹，有着各种各样的故事，本质也依旧是美的。艺术家趙婌眞创作出的作品描述着事物美的本质，并以此来表达新的美学。

《黑色上海》是由碎木制作而成的系列作品。艺术家在废弃的木头中发现了它独特之美，并呈现在作品当中。那些被切成各种形状的木合板，它们在使用的过程中经历的时间、地点、目的都是不一样的；留在木合板上的钉子印、鞋印、标记也似乎在诉说着它的故事，这些木合板重组后成为一个整体，又开始新的故事。它们经艺术家之手开启了第二次诞生的过程，得到了新生，继而又创造出另一种全新的美。

在韩纸上用拼贴技法，并和颜料、墨完成的《在云端》系列作品表现出了独特的东方之美。在空中游荡的各种墨点像即将要爆发倾盆大雨的一朵朵黑云，但它又坚硬如石头。在东方世界里，云朵自古以来象征着人类追求的理想社会，它表达了同自然一起生长的东方乌托邦思想。承载着的东方余白之美和节制之美的此系列作品同时也契合了西方的抽象主义之美。

进入展厅后让观众得到震撼感的《框架》作品是由数十个木框组成。当我们在注视从天而降的木框时，木框中未知的故事在与观众对话时又形成了新的故事，这种新的故事继而填满了空的木框。当有着不同历史背景与故事的木框在聚集之后又成为新的表达出口并留至现在。所以《框架》不仅仅是一个单纯的艺术装置，也是一个极具戏剧化的作品。

活跃在纽约的雕塑以及装置艺术家趙婌眞，她的作品不仅仅是把废弃的物品重新组合起来，更是对我们当下世界的思考，诉说着大环境消费中产生的各种物品以及因此带来的后果，也在洞察着人类无休止的欲望。艺术家在上海完成的作品把当地城市的特征、东西方文化的复合性、现代性、社会主义国家和资本主义国家之间的议题及消费文化，通过作品诉说出来。

此次由Asian Art Works Beijing举办的趙婌眞个展《Rebirth》，拷问了在社会大环境消费中
的浪费现象和人类尚未意识到的事物的细小之美，并讲述着事物诞生与灭亡的循环。


张幽丽 Yuree Jang, Asian Art Works Director