THREADS OF HUMANITY
Medium: “Nude” pantyhose, threads dyed in melanin powder, denim scraps, wood panel
Dimension: 24 x 44
The story of human restlessness is an ancient one. While my grandparents immigrated to the U.S. on the heels of the Immigration Act of 1965, their narrative began centuries earlier, in the ancestral exchange of ideas and goods that moved along the Silk Road. In this mixed-media installation, reclaimed denim and pantyhose in varying "nude" shades reference the diverse spectrum of human skin tones, and threads dyed in melanin extracted from squid ink mimic the unifying biology that underlies human pigmentation. These elements create an abstracted map—one that mirrors a history of global migration and human connection stretching back to antiquity.
THE KINSHIP TABLE
Medium: Acetone, acrylic, laser prints on paper
Dimension: 30 x 20
Dating back to the 1300s, the traditional Korean first-birthday table (dolsang) emerged during an era of high infant mortality, marking a child's survival as a meaningful cultural milestone. This mixed-media work depicts my mother at her dol surrounded by her kin, celebrating family heritage as well as the textured realities of 1970s South Korea. The composition overlays acrylic paint onto an acetone transfer of historical and commercial images, juxtaposing the bounty of the birthday table against the hyper-specific culture of the era. Nostalgic artifacts like shrimp chips and Shin Ramyun sit alongside archival newspaper headlines, capturing a turbulent decade marked by rapid economic modernization, state censorship, and a rising youth counterculture.
KINSHIP REFRACTED
Medium: Acetone transfer, collage, acrylic on canvas
Dimension: 18 × 24
In this mixed-media collage work, I used acetone transfer to piece together the fragments of my own world—juxtaposing the stacked fruit pyramids of my mother's traditional dolsang table with American street scenes. I overlapped and rotated the figures until the boundaries blurred, leaving it unclear whose hand belonged to whom. By wrapping the figures in translucent, chiffon-like fabric, I partially covered and obscured parts of the body to show how family history can feel like a second skin that protects but also keeps me hidden.
SKINSHIP Study 1: 할머니 & 할아버지
Medium: Acrylic and oxidized copper sheets on canvas
Dimension: 40 x 18
In the home I shared with my grandparents, I witnessed the quiet devotion with which my grandmother tended to my grandfather in his battle with Alzheimer’s. These paintings serve as a tactile exploration of the physical toll of caretaking. By blending acrylic paint with oxidized copper sheets and rust, I render intimate close-ups of the aging body—from gnarled hands to weathered joints. The textures created by these eroding metallic elements evoke the utilitarian aspects of touch, which can become a form of wordless communication when language fails.
SKINSHIP Study 2: Hand Gestures
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Dimension: 26 × 15
In this painting, I explored the gestures of hands as a profound expression of human connection. Drawing from deeply personal moments in my own life—my infant hand touching my grandmother's, arms and hands wrapped around my brother, my great-aunt’s hands buttoning her son’s shirt cuff—I wanted to focus on how the simple act of touch conveys devotion, intimacy, and memory from person to person, across generations.
LIFE CYCLES
Medium: Acrylic with fermented soybean powder, resin, copper
Dimension: 23 × 18
When I saw Korean doenjang being made in the traditional way, I was struck by how the wrinkled bricks of fermenting soybeans resembled human skin and parched soil. This connection sparked my interest in decay, alteration, and the shared lifecycle of humans and the natural world. I experimented with fermentation, allowing soybean powder to develop mold before mixing it with heavy matte gel. I painted bark, roots and other organic forms to echo skin’s folds and fissures, and incorporated clay imprints to create rubble-like fragments evoking stone’s erosion into soil.
THE ARTIST MEETS HER GODMOTHER
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Dimension: 44 × 22
An elegy for my Ghanaian-American godmother, Auntie Lorraine, who passed away during the height of the global pandemic at the age of forty-two. In capturing the profound moment of our first meeting, I utilize a deliberately minimalist composition, stripping away all extraneous detail to focus on the striking juxtaposition of age, expression, and skin tone between the two subjects. Through this visual economy, the piece distills a moment of deep intimacy and connection, celebrating the inherent beauty found within our differences.
CHIFFONERIES
Medium: Acrylic on canvas/glass panel
Dimensions:
Serving as a prequel to “The Artist Meets Her Godmother,” this series of acrylic paintings captures a joyful early chapter in the shared history of my mother and my godmother, Auntie Lorraine. The title is a play on the sense of lightness and laughter evoked by the layers of sheer bridal fabrics, which echo the intimate skin tones of other paintings. In this series, I attempt to capture an intimate and fleeting moment in a long friendship, as young women move into the future together.
THE SONG OF THE CELL
Medium: Acrylic on canvas/glass panel
Dimensions: 27 x 36
When we look beneath our surface differences, we can see that the biological architecture of human skin, on a cellular level, reveals a strange and unexpected beauty. This series of acrylic paintings presents three microscopic views into the histology of skin cells, translating scientific imagery into a vivid landscape of form and color. By capturing the stunning, completely un-skin-like aesthetics visible only under magnification, the paintings interrogate what lies beneath the surface of our skin, inviting the viewer to look closer and find a shared sense of wonder at the roots of human identity.
42 SHADES OF “NUDE”
Medium: Canvas, acrylic paint, foundation from Make Up For Ever
Dimensions: 24 x 28
This work consists of a grid of 42 painted panels, each representing a skin tone created by blending acrylic paint with Make Up For Ever foundation. The letters of the word “nude” are painted, overlapping varied tones to question whom this word truly represents. By incorporating makeup, the work challenges how beauty standards and consumer products often don’t capture the nuance of certain skin tones.
The Skin I’m In
Medium: Acrylic, newspaper
Dimensions: 18 × 23
What does it mean to assimilate: to adapt, blend in, or become less visible? I layered American newspaper articles on food, fashion, and careers with Korean sliding-door grids, supermarket aisles, and tiger fur, partly hiding them beneath army camouflage. Hands grip the collages’ edges; bare legs emerge beneath grocery aisles, giving the flat images an awkward bodily presence. Through this tension between what is shown and concealed, I explored how assimilation can reshape the identity we present—and how others understand us.
WE THE PEOPLE
Medium: “Nude” pantyhose weighted with culturally significant grains
Size: 40 x 60
Installation made of pantyhose in a range of “nude” shades, filled with grains historically traded along the Silk Road (rice, masa, bulgur, millet, etc.). Suspended from above, the forms hang, stretch, and sag to create organic bodily shapes that transform everyday materials into symbols of lived in bodies and the beauty of imperfection.
