Contemporary Art Galleries

Intuition, Measuring, Math Underlie Artist’s Work

Installation artist Jong Oh takes a minimalist approach to his work, building structures by suspending Plexiglass and painted string in the air.

As is his practice, before creating his exhibition “Sotto Voce” in the Contemporary Art Galleries, Oh waited for the uniquely configured space to speak to him.

Artist Jong Oh says he wants visitors to sense the ‘Sotto Voce’ exhibit with their bodies, take their time, go closer, and walk around inside. (Sean Flynn/UConn Photo)
Artist Jong Oh says he wants visitors to sense the ‘Sotto Voce’ exhibit with their bodies, take their time, go closer, and walk around inside. (Sean Flynn/UConn Photo)

“I come to the gallery or studio and stay there for a few days looking at the space. I listen to the space,” the New York-based Korean artist says. “I don’t have any plans when I get to the space. The space has to allow me to do something. The process is intuitive, but it’s also a lot of measuring and math. Some people think when they see my work that it’s all planned and I know everything before I start, but actually it’s very intuitive.”

Oh spent his childhood in Grand Canaria, Spain. He earned a bachelor’s degree in sculpture from Hongik University in Seoul and an FMA from the School of Visual Art in New York City, where he now lives. He has had solo exhibitions in Austria, Germany, and Mexico.

For Oh’s exhibition in Storrs, the gallery walls are painted white and, as is typical of his work, he uses thread, Plexiglass, and some found objects to create illusions that can change in appearance as a visitor walks through the gallery. He describes his work as “line sculpture.”

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“Sotto Voce: Installations by Jong Oh” will continue through May 6 at the Contemporary Art Galleries in the Department of Art & Art History Building, 830 Bolton Road, Storrs. For more information go to the CAG website.

Making a Career in Art

The opening in late January of the third Alumni Biennial exhibition at the Contemporary Art Galleries served not only as a display of recent juried art by UConn MFA graduates, but also as a forum for students to learn about what it takes to pursue a successful career in the world of art.

Judith Thorpe, professor of photography and director of the MFA program, says many UConn MFA graduates are still making art, despite statistics showing a large fall-off nationally for fine arts graduates after leaving school. “We have a good network of alums. Almost 80 percent were still exhibiting,” she says. “They’ve done it through nonprofit galleries, teaching, in museums, and galleries. There’s been a whole way of having a life in the arts that doesn’t deter art-making.”

'Pittsburgh left,' oil on canvas (2014), Deborah Zlotsky '89 MFA.
‘Pittsburgh left,’ oil on canvas (2014), Deborah Zlotsky ’89 MFA.

The four alumni whose works are exhibited include printmaker Jennifer Dierdorf ’08 MFA, installation artist and sculptor Jared Holt ’14 MFA, video artist Siobhan Landry ’11 MFA, and painter Deborah Zlotsky ’89 MFA.

Barry Rosenberg, director of Contemporary Art Galleries and associate professor of art, says the alumni exhibit is the one show he does not curate. Instead he recruits an outside curator, which for this exhibition was Jay Lehman, co-owner of Morgan Lehman Gallery in New York City, who reviewed an artist’s statement, resume, art images, press clippings, and work submitted by more than 20 MFA alumni.

“Each artist [selected] makes a strong and thoughtful work about seemingly contradictory ideas and emotions, such as hope and longing, distance and intimacy, and sorrow and joy,” Lehman says.

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“Alumni Biennial” at the Contemporary Art Galleries, 830 Bolton Road, Storrs, continues through March 13. For more information go to the Galleries’ website.