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Photograph by Paul Myers
'Thru 1,' a large installation of square-shaped wood panels, takes up a whole wall at the Gallery at Montalvo. It's part of Kyoung Ae Cho's 'Nature on the Grid' installation.
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Local artist finds life in dead things
By Shari Kaplan
Who says that quilts have to be soft or that scrolls have to be made of paper? Certainly not Kyoung Ae Cho, the multimedia artist who has brought the outdoors inside for the four months her installation, "Nature on the Grid," is on display at the Gallery at Montalvo, 15400 Montalvo Road, off Highway 9 in the hills above Saratoga.
A portion of the artwork comprises what Cho refers to as "quilts," although they are actually made of natural materials. Some, including Chaos II, Quilt?! I and Path consist of sections of burnished wood meticulously sliced, squared off and sewn onto dark fabric in intricate patterns and geometric shapes.
"The surface patterns of the age rings on the wood are beautiful, while also recalling the cycles of growth of the felled tree," explains Michele Rowe-Shields, Montalvo's visual arts director and curator of this exhibit. "Our awareness of the cyclical process that lies beyond the surface is intended to be transcendental."
Other large-scale works include Thru, Inner-Scape I and Scroll, which feature tree leaves, hair and other natural materials. The latter is particularly interesting in that Cho has collected needles from an old discarded Christmas tree and sewn them into precise lines on a long scroll of white silk organza. Scroll's symbolism is evocative not only of giving renewed life to something that is dead, but also of the simplicity and tranquillity found in nature.
A native of Onyang, South Korea, Cho blends the traditions of art-making and the meditative philosophies of her home country with the more contemporary concepts of modern and abstract art. As for the idea of a sublime spirituality within nature--that's a thought that has always existed, especially among creative types, and probably will for as long as there's a natural world with which humans can interact.
"I do not work alone. I collaborate with nature in my work. I try to show the beauty of nature and restore what is destroyed by human desire," Cho writes in her artist's statement. "Through my conversations with nature, I have gained four insights embedded in my works: Change, Time, Essence and Rebirth."
After earning a bachelor of fine arts degree in 1986 from Duking Women's University in Seoul--where she specialized in fiber arts, Cho came to the United States, where she earned a master's of fine arts degree from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. She has since won several awards and grants in the fiber and textile art circuit and has exhibited for more than 15 years throughout the United States.
Nature on the Grid is up through Sept. 17. Gallery hours are Wednesday through Sunday, 1 to 4 p.m. Admission is free. For more information, call 408.961.5813 or visit www.villamontalvo.org on the Internet.
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