Early Access: Julia Jo, With Newfound Strength

EARLY ACCESS: JULIA JO, WITH NEWFOUND STRENGTH

Announcing a new limited-edition print benefiting When We All Vote

Featuring a frenzied network of overlapping contours, With Newfound Strength stems from a recent body of work that embraces the chaos in life while expressing the full emotional potency of painting. Various characters can be found within the composition, nestled in fluid streaks of color that carry equal weight as the human subjects. Inspired by her own memories, Jo begins her creative process by sketching a largely figurative composition directly onto a canvas—a process that she refers to as “drawing in paint.” The artist then adds on additional layers, until the final composition is elevated beyond her personal narrative to a higher plane of universal human emotion. For this limited edition series, the artist will use gouache to hand-embellish the prints by adding contrasting lines, accentuating both the sweeping brush strokes as well as figurative forms.

Julia Jo signing her print, With Newfound Strength.

This marks ART FOR CHANGE’s second partnership with When We All Vote, a non-profit organization whose mission is to increase participation in every election and to close the race and age voting gap. In conjunction with the online exhibition, ART FOR CHANGE will donate five percent of the unframed purchase price of sales through December 1st, with a $10,000 minimum commitment, to support When We All Vote’s mission to increase voter participation in this crucial election year.

Julia Jo holding her print, With Newfound Strength.

Of ART FOR CHANGE’s initiative to support When We All Vote, Jo notes, “I’m thrilled for this opportunity, especially during this pivotal time of political unrest and change. I firmly believe every vote counts, now more than ever. I hope to encourage voter participation in the upcoming election, to take part in forging the immediate future we will share together. In this image titled With Newfound Strength, there are two energetic female figures bursting forth, much like flames. Just as the title aptly suggests, I’ve thought particularly about the sheer strength it takes to fight for one’s unrelenting resolve.”

Julia Jo (b. 1991, Seoul, South Korea; lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. MFA Parsons School of Design 2019, BFA Smith College, 2016). Jo’s practice encompasses a distinctive style of oil painting that incorporates a vibrant color palette to render compositions that oscillate between the figurative and the abstract. While born in Seoul, Jo spent her childhood and adolescence moving between South Korea and states across the U.S.; and she draws upon a deep, personal well of moments lost in translation, social miscues and interpersonal distance to inspire her practice.

Her paintings are grounded in the self-doubt, conflict, and misunderstanding that can subsume any relationship, with human forms and familiar objects dynamically rendered through careful line, color, and shadow to simultaneously reveal and conceal. In the last year, Jo has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Charles Moffett, New York, NY and James Fuentes, Los Angeles, CA. In the fall of 2023, she will participate in the esteemed Beecher Residency in Litchfield, CT. Her work is in the permanent collection of ICA Miami and The High Museum of Art.

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