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Michael Joo, Sensory Meridian: Kavi Gupta | 219 N. Elizabeth St., Second Floor, Chicago, IL

Past exhibition
14 January - 10 April 2021
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Overview
Michael Joo Untitled, 2020 Quadrophonic multimedia installation (14 minutes, 53 seconds) Dimensions variable Edition of 3 plus 1 artist's proof
Michael Joo
Untitled, 2020
Quadrophonic multimedia installation (14 minutes, 53 seconds)
Dimensions variable
Edition of 3 plus 1 artist's proof

Kavi Gupta presents Sensory Meridian, a multimedia exhibition of works by Michael Joo. 

 

Three new sculptures of disincarnate body parts, alchemized from scans of historical works in the Smithsonian Archives, explore issues of representation, transmission, and transformation. The sculpture From Without features the disembodied face of Anne Sullivan, best known as the teacher and companion of Helen Keller. Present are the features Keller never saw; absent is the mind that enabled both teacher and student to transform. All One Thing features the fist of Abraham Lincoln, copied from a form originally cast on the campaign trail. What's missing is the broom handle Lincoln had to grip in order to make a fist, after reportedly shaking so many hands that he lost muscle control. The third work, All the Other, features a fragment from the sculpted arm of an ancient Greek slave. Scans have revealed that, at some point, this section of the original sculpture was repaired using a cast from an actual human arm—authenticity hidden within artifice.

 

An accompanying collaborative audio-visual installation fills the exhibition space with the whisperings of the voice of a social neuroscientist observing and describing human interactions that we cannot see. Designed to trigger ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response), the quadrophonic audio illustrates the power of absent bodies to stimulate and affect bodies that are present, while the video, showing fragments of the neuroscientist's head while she's talking and graphical sound analytics, further explores disconnected presences and mediated realities.

 

"For me, these works deal with the origins of painting not merely as something plastic, but as fragile, frozen moments emblematic of encounters at the intersection of time, material, and process," says Joo. "It's always the marriage of meaning and material that interests me-how we get there, and what possible other avenues of meaning we might find within our expectations of and responses to objects and each other."

 

Sound/Video Collaborative: Ayoung Yu, Nicholas Oh, Yixuan Shao, Avishag Cohen Rodrigues, and Mitch Blummer. Featuring: Stephanie Kim, Department of Psychology, Ohio State University. Special thanks to Miya Masaoka and the Sound Art Department of Columbia University School of the Arts, the Center for New Art at William Paterson University and Roman David Brown, Smithsonian Open Access and Vince Rossi, Max Anderson, Garrett Linn, and Matt Taber.

 

Michael Joo is a Senior Critic in Sculpture at Yale University and teaches in the Columbia University MFA program. He received his MFA from the Yale School of Art, Yale University, New Haven, CT, in 1991, after graduating with a BFA from Washington University, St. Louis, MO, 1989. His work investigates why we perceive as we perceive, and his non-linear, almost cyclical approach to his practice, together with his combination of scientific language and research, results in work that is a documentation of process. Joo is the recipient of a Warhol Foundation Grant, Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant, and John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, among others. His work is in the permanent collections of the Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO; FNAC (Foundation National d’Art Contemporain), Paris, France; Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel; MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, MA; Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Samsung Foundation for Art and Culture, Seoul, Korea; and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, among others.

 

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Virtual Exhibition
Works
  • Michael Joo Untitled, 2020 Quadrophonic multimedia installation (14 minutes, 53 seconds) Dimensions variable Edition of 3 plus 1 artist's proof
    Michael Joo
    Untitled, 2020
    Quadrophonic multimedia installation (14 minutes, 53 seconds)
    Dimensions variable
    Edition of 3 plus 1 artist's proof
  • Michael Joo All One Thing, 2020 Plastic 3D print 11 x 15 x 10 in 27.9 x 38.1 x 25.4 cm
    Michael Joo
    All One Thing, 2020
    Plastic 3D print
    11 x 15 x 10 in
    27.9 x 38.1 x 25.4 cm
  • Michael Joo From Without, 2020 ABS 3D print with inflatable pillow. 15 x 23 x 18 in 38.1 x 58.4 x 45.7 cm
    Michael Joo
    From Without, 2020
    ABS 3D print with inflatable pillow.
    15 x 23 x 18 in
    38.1 x 58.4 x 45.7 cm
  • Michael Joo Single Breath Transfer (Hyperpolarized), 2020 Archival inkjet print 24 x 32 in 61 x 81.3 cm Edition of 3 plus 1 artist's proof
    Michael Joo
    Single Breath Transfer (Hyperpolarized), 2020
    Archival inkjet print
    24 x 32 in
    61 x 81.3 cm
    Edition of 3 plus 1 artist's proof
  • Michael Joo Untitled 5 (Single Breath Transfer), 2018-2019 Mold-blown glass 18 5/8 x 8 x 6 in 47.2 x 20.3 x 15.2 cm
    Michael Joo
    Untitled 5 (Single Breath Transfer), 2018-2019
    Mold-blown glass
    18 5/8 x 8 x 6 in
    47.2 x 20.3 x 15.2 cm
  • Michael Joo Untitled (Single Breath Transfer), 2018 Mold-blown glass 20 x 9 x 7 in 50.8 x 22.9 x 17.8 cm
    Michael Joo
    Untitled (Single Breath Transfer), 2018
    Mold-blown glass
    20 x 9 x 7 in
    50.8 x 22.9 x 17.8 cm
  • Michael Joo Untitled 1 (Single Breath Transfer), 2018-2019 Mold-blown glass 18 1/2 x 8 x 7 1/2 in 47 x 20.3 x 19.1 cm
    Michael Joo
    Untitled 1 (Single Breath Transfer), 2018-2019
    Mold-blown glass
    18 1/2 x 8 x 7 1/2 in
    47 x 20.3 x 19.1 cm
  • Michael Joo Untitled 2 (Single Breath Transfer), 2018-2019 Mold-blown glass 17 x 8 x 7 1/2 in 43.2 x 20.3 x 19.1 cm
    Michael Joo
    Untitled 2 (Single Breath Transfer), 2018-2019
    Mold-blown glass
    17 x 8 x 7 1/2 in
    43.2 x 20.3 x 19.1 cm
  • Michael Joo Untitled 3 (Single Breath Transfer), 2018-2019 Mold-blown glass 15 3/4 x 11 x 10 in 40 x 27.9 x 25.4 cm
    Michael Joo
    Untitled 3 (Single Breath Transfer), 2018-2019
    Mold-blown glass
    15 3/4 x 11 x 10 in
    40 x 27.9 x 25.4 cm
  • Michael Joo Untitled 4 (Single Breath Transfer), 2018-2019 Mold-blown glass 17 x 11 x 8 in 43.2 x 27.9 x 20.3 cm
    Michael Joo
    Untitled 4 (Single Breath Transfer), 2018-2019
    Mold-blown glass
    17 x 11 x 8 in
    43.2 x 27.9 x 20.3 cm
  • Michael Joo Various Low Mass Stars (NY Farm Colony 1), 2018 Silver nitrate and epoxy ink on canvas 62 x 47 x 1 1/2 in 157.5 x 119.4 x 3.8 cm
    Michael Joo
    Various Low Mass Stars (NY Farm Colony 1), 2018
    Silver nitrate and epoxy ink on canvas
    62 x 47 x 1 1/2 in
    157.5 x 119.4 x 3.8 cm
  • Michael Joo Various Low Mass Stars (NY Farm Colony 2), 2018 Silver nitrate and epoxy ink on canvas 62 x 47 x 2 in 157.5 x 119.4 x 5.1 cm Unframed
    Michael Joo
    Various Low Mass Stars (NY Farm Colony 2), 2018
    Silver nitrate and epoxy ink on canvas
    62 x 47 x 2 in
    157.5 x 119.4 x 5.1 cm
    Unframed
Installation Views
  • Michaeljoosensorymeridian219 1
  • Michaeljoosensorymeridian219 3
  • Michaeljoosensorymeridian219 5
  • Michaeljoosensorymeridian219 6
  • Michaeljoosensorymeridian219 2
  • Michaeljoosensorymeridian219 4
  • Michaeljoosensorymeridian219 7
  • Michaeljoosensorymeridian219 8
  • Michaeljoosensorymeridian219 10
  • Michaeljoosensorymeridian219 12
  • Michaeljoosensorymeridian219 13
  • Michaeljoosensorymeridian219 11
  • Michaeljoosensorymeridian219 14
  • Michaeljoosensorymeridian219 15
Videos
  • In Conversation: Michael Joo & Charles Gaines

    In Conversation: Michael Joo & Charles Gaines

    Read more
Events
  • In Conversation Michael Joo & Charles Gaines

    In Conversation Michael Joo & Charles Gaines

    9 Apr 2021
    For the next installment of In Conversation , Michael Joo and Charles Gaines will discuss Joo's exhibition Sensory Meridian and the thematic cross sections between their respective oeuvres, centering nature, transmission, and representation. The event marks the occasion of EXPO Chicago and the closing of Sensory Meridian at Kavi Gupta | Elizabeth St. Sensory Meridian features a series of new sculptures of disincarnate body parts, alchemized from scans of historical works in the Smithsonian Archives, exploring the prior mentioned issues of representation, and transmission. April 9, 3 pm CT Taking...
    Read more

Related artist

  • Michael Joo

    Michael Joo

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Kavi Gupta Washington Blvd

835 W. Washington Blvd. Chicago, IL 60607

Hours | Tue–Fri: 11 am–6 pm, Sat: 12 pm–5 pm

Kavi Gupta Elizabeth St

219 N. Elizabeth St. Chicago, IL 60607 
Hours | By appointment only

 

 

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