Striated presents a focused selection of works from a formative period in Jae Ko’s decades-long practice. Presented at 22MUSE GALLERY, the exhibition brings together works created during a pivotal phase in the artist’s development, when her sustained engagement with material transformation, process, and the natural world began to define the distinctive visual language for which she is recognized today.
Constructed from recycled paper saturated with sumi ink, Ko’s sculptures emerge through an intensive process of rolling, compressing, binding, and carving. Their layered surfaces evoke geological strata, weathered landscapes, and organic growth while simultaneously addressing themes of time, memory, and impermanence. Through the accumulation of repetitive gestures, the works reveal the physical traces of labor, allowing process itself to become an integral component of their meaning.
Central to Ko’s practice is an understanding of material as a living, transformative force.By elevating discarded paper into monumental sculptural forms, she challenges conventional distinctions between permanence and ephemerality, fragility and resilience. Her commitment to sustainable materials extends beyond environmental considerations, reflecting an enduring interest in cycles of renewal, accumulation, and change.
Ko’s sculptural vocabulary occupies a space between architecture and landscape. While her biomorphic forms suggest erosion, sedimentation, and natural topographies, they also respond to the urban environments that shaped her early life in Seoul and Tokyo before her relocation to Maryland’s Eastern Shore, where she has lived and worked for more than two decades. This dialogue between built and natural environments remains fundamental to her practice.
The exhibition offers an opportunity to consider the evolution of Ko’s artistic vision within a broader transnational context. Rather than depicting nature directly, her sculptures embody natural processes through their material presence, inviting close observation and sustained contemplation. Their rhythmic surfaces and quiet monumentality encourage viewers to experience sculpture as both physical object and temporal record.
Striated examines the intersections of material, landscape, and memory through a practice that is simultaneously rigorous and intuitive. The exhibition situates Ko’s work within ongoing conversations surrounding sustainability, material agency, and the relationship between humanity and the natural world, revealing sculpture as a site where time, process, and transformation converge.
