JOOYOUNG CHOI: Paracosmic Alchemy

Artist Reception: Friday, February 12, 6:00 – 8:30 pm On view: February 12 – March 12, 2016 Anya Tish Gallery is delighted to present Paracosmic Alchemy, a solo exhibition of new paintings, video, and sculpture by multi-disciplinary artist JooYoung Choi. Paracosmic Alchemy will mark Choi’s inaugural solo exhibition with the gallery. Based in Houston, Texas, JooYoung Choi was born in Seoul, South Korea and immigrated to Concord, New Hampshire in 1983 by way of adoption. Through painting, video, sculpture, animation and music, Choi documents the interconnecting stories of various characters and creatures that reside in the highly structured, expansive parallel land she calls the Cosmic Womb. Growing up one of few Asians in her small North Eastern town, Choi looked to popular culture and American television to quilt together a concept of Asian society and identity, creating her own tribe of real and fictional people to serve as her Cosmic family. This amalgam of influential figures and ideas would later give life to the characters portrayed in her work, including Queen Kiok, Matriarch of the paracosm, C.S. Watson, the only Earthling in the Cosmic Womb, and the Tuplets, a series of five heroines, all of whom bear an uncanny resemblance to Choi herself. Visually, the intense color and collaged effect of Choi’s narrative paintings and videos are not unlike something out of Sesame Street or Pee-wee’s Playhouse, two television shows that have served as major influences for the artist. Though stylistically rooted in her fascination with pop culture, the messages and motivations behind Choi’s work are ignited by the weighty, imperative issues of racism, adoption, and the search for self-identification. Choi deftly presents the work as cultural and social critique, in both a confessional and a global context. JooYoung Choi is a 2015 recipient of the prestigious Artadia Award, as well as a 2015 Spark Grant from The Idea Fund, endowed by The Andy Warhol Foundation. She holds a Bachelor's in Fine Art from Massachusetts College of Art and Design, and a Masters of Fine Art in Visual Art from Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Choi's work has been exhibited in such venues as The Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience, Seattle, Washington; The National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago, Illinois; The Museum of Human Achievement, Austin, Texas; and Lawndale Art Center, Houston, Texas. Her work has been featured by numerous media groups and publications, including The Huffington Post, The Houston Chronicle, Arts & Culture Magazine, the Korean Global News Network YTN, and Houston's PaperCity. In 2017, Choi's work will be exhibited at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston.