HEEJAE JO
BIO
I believe in the beauty of imperfection. When I find an ugly and awkward moment between colours and shapes in my art, I feel relieved and natural. The shape of lives is not always perfect. It is stained, marked, crushed and scattered. So is art, I believe. I enjoy my process of looking for the best harmony among the absurdities.
Heejae Jo was born in Seoul, Korea, in 1987. Having an interest in learning how people acquire emotion and their patterns of behavior, she studied Educational Psychology at Sookmyung Women’s University. Attending a women’s school also gave a great impact on her feministic perception.
Studying abnormal psychology in university, she has been questioning the boundaries between normal and abnormal. In her art, she likes to experiment with what we believe is normal—tradition, universal value, and rational ways of thinking.
She immigrated to Canada in 2015. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from OCAD University. Her identity as an immigrant and an Asian female with her interracial marriage life is a major subject matter in her art.
In 2019, she decided to use her last name ‘Jo’, rather than ‘Shin’ which was granted by the male-centric convention. She chose ‘Jo’ from the names of people she loves the most.
EDUCATION
OCAD University, Toronto, ON, Canada
B.F.A., Drawing and Painting, 2020
Sookmyung Women’s University, Seoul, Korea
B.A., Educational Psychology. 2011
B.A., English Language and Literature. 2011
EXHIBITIONS
Solo
2022
Immersed In Bliss, the Red Head Gallery, Toronto, Canada (upcoming)
2021
Unsettler’s Chair , Marong197, Seoul, Korea
Group
2022
2022
TOAF61: Toronto Outdoor Art Fair, Toronto, ON, Canada
Creative Resilience / Resilient Creativity, First Canadian Place, Toronto, ON, Canada
2022
2022
2021
2021
2021
Art Comp, 100 Kellogg Lane, London, ON, Canada
Overzealous 2022 Perception, Art Space Connect Gallery, Toronto, ON, Canada
Off the Screen 2021, Propeller Art Gallery, Toronto, ON, Canada
Collective Experience, Propeller Art Gallery, Toronto, ON, Canada
VAM43 Juried Show, Visual Arts Mississauga at Riverwood, Mississauga, ON, Canada
2021
2020
Sanitized Activity / Emerging Artists Exhibition, Propeller Art Gallery, Toronto
Off the Screen 2020, Propeller Art Gallery, Toronto
2020
Fresh Paint / New Construction, Art Mûr, Montreal, QC, Canada
2016
Why the @#&! Do You Paint?: Go Figure, Gladstone Hotel, Toronto, ON, Canada
AWARDS
2020
2020
Fred Hagan, Passion in Painting Award
DRAWING & PAINTING CLASS OF 2020 GRADEx 105, Emerging Artist Award