About

The work of Asian-American painter Suk Ja Kang-Engles is a manifestation of her struggle to escape the cultural and social bounds implied by the designation of Asian-American. "I think of myself, first of all, as a woman still in the process of escaping from the stridently patriarchal culture of Korea. While America has often seemed to offer less restrictions than Korea did, I continue to find myself subject to forces that try to define who and what I am. The ongoing struggle between these past and present impositions versus my resistance to them has been the central animating tension through the many stages of my art," Kang-Engles writes.

Truly, the paintings of Kang-Engles act as a means of liberation - not only on a personal level for the artist, but as the catalyst to shatter preconceived notions held by the viewer. The Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein proposed that despite an individual's impression of seeing the outline and shape of an object in front of us, we are actually seeing the frame through which we see that object. "I want to free the viewer from these frames of visual reference," Kang-Engles explains, "by creating the effect of imagery freed from the tyrannous habits of interpretation."

Kang-Engles creates stunningly beautiful paintings in her exploration of this philosophical ideal. For example, her "Eye-Con" series consists of canvases intensely saturated with red glazes; delicate markings of graphite lines and forms float suspended between the layers of sheer red paint, creating subtle indications of landscapes, mountain scenes, or birds. However, these markings are subordinated by the overwhelming power and intensity of her use of the color red. "Because the color red is so quick to leap into iconic status for the Western mind in its conceptions of exotic Asian-ness, the overwhelming redness of these pieces symbolizes for me other false (yet standardized) facets of the 'Orientalist' mindset. I want red to predominate in this series so fully that it obscures perception of potential imagery," Kang-Engles writes. "I want to suggest that when the inner Western eye turns to 'the East,' it can be conned into a certain blindness, if it has not unlearned that which it likes to think it knows."

Suk Ja Kang-Engles immigrated to the United States from South Korea approximately twenty years ago, and has been active as an artist and curator since that time. Kang-Engles was favorably reviewed in Art in America. She has exhibited throughout the United States since 1994, and has been the recipient of numerous awards and grants.

Eye-con Series

I certainly hope that the works in my 'Eye-con' series have a good deal of aesthetic, sensual, and visceral appeal, and it was a pleasure on all of those levels to plan and produce them. However, they also function on an intellectual level.

I see these works in cultural terms, and more specifically, as my commentary on the ever-shifting constellation of icons that form idealized Western conceptions of Asian-ness. While the color red in particular is indeed a prominent presence in some Asian settings, Westerners often overemphasize it in their ideas of what Asia is like; they often do the same with other supposed aspects of Asian people's lives. Because the color red is so quick to leap into iconic status for the Western mind in its conceptions of exotic Asian-ness, the overwhelming redness of these pieces symbolizes for me other false (yet standardized) facets of the 'Orientalist' mindset.

I want red to predominate in this series so fully that it obscures perception of potential imagery-landscapes, mountainous scenery, sunsets, birds (or are they eyes?), townscapes, and so on. I want to suggest, then, that when the inner Western eye turns to 'the East,' it can be conned into a certain blindness, if it has not unlearned that which it likes to think it knows.

Interpellation Series

As I create the pieces in this series, I think about turning the tables on those who wield the authority to "take" the fingerprints of us all. The tips of our fingers and thumbs are pressed onto documentation that asserts our individuality at the same time that it claims our connections to and commonality with others. Every fingerprint is unique, yet our prints attest to our "citizenship," our membership in a community of supposedly similar people. Authority has also attached tense, anxiety-inducing associations to the idea: we offer forth our outstretched hands, and they are grasped by other hands that take from us the marks of our selves.

I want the repetitiveness of this work to suggest the taking back of a single fingerprint, mine, but also the taking back of all fingerprints. By recontextualizing this signifier of identity, I hope viewers will see it anew, attaching fresh new meanings of their own to the image and notion of something so simple, yet profound, as a fingerprint.

BIO

MFA Painting Program, University of Illinois 1996
BFA, Drawing and Painting, School of Art, University of Georgia 1986
BA, Korean Literature, Sung Shin Women's University, Seoul, Korea

PUBLICATIONS

Featured Artist, New American Paintings, Volume 28, June 2000
Featured Work, Metropolitan Home, January/February 2000
Review, Art in America, October 1998
Review, Art Papers, September/October 1998
Feature/review, Dossier Magazine, April 1998
Featured Work, Suitcase: A Journal of Transcultural Traffic 3.1-2 (1998): 249
Featured Artist, Twentieth Century Women of Color in America, Pheobe Farris, Greenwood Press, 1998
Feature Photo, Atlanta Journal Constitution, 7.1997
"Artist's Corner," Feature/review, The Red and Black, 4.1996
Feature Photo, Suburban Review, 2. 1996

EXHIBITIONS

2005
“Focus: Suk Ja Kang Engles” Betty M Collection, Chicago, IL
Solo Show, The Lowe Gallery, Atlanta, GA
“Remnants of Boundaries” Solo show. Guthrie Contemporary, New Orleans, LA
“After Whitemess”, Group Show, Tarble Arts Center, IL
Group Shoe, Push 2 Gallery, Jacksonville, FL
 
2004
“Encoded,” Group Show, FE Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA (installation)
“Tell Me the Story of the World without Words,” Group Show, City Without Walls, Newark, NJ (video installation)

2003
“After Whiteness,” Group Show, I-Space, Chicago, IL (Curator and Participant with video installations.)
Solo Show, The Lowe Gallery, Atlanta, GA
“Flora and Fauna,” Group Show, Swim Gallery, Grand Rapida, MI (video Installation)

2002
“30th Anniversary Exhibition,” Neiman Marcus, Atlanta, GA
“13th Anniversary Show,” The Lowe Gallery, Atlanta, GA
The Lowe Gallery, Group Show, Santa Monica, CA - Pedestrian: A Gallery of Contemporary Art, Group Show, Jacksonville, FL
“Inspired in Illinois,” Group Show, Lakeview Museum of Arts and Sciences, Peoria, IL
“Anima,” Group Show, The Lowe Gallery, Atlanta, GA
Group Show, Spiller Vincenty Gallery, Jacksonville, FL

2001
"12th Anniversary Show," The Lowe Gallery, Atlanta, GA
"Pecking Orders," The Lowe Gallery, Atlanta, GA

2000
"An Encumbrance of Lyrics," The Lowe Gallery, Atlanta, GA
"Lowe Gallery Eleventh Anniversary Show," The Lowe Gallery, Atlanta, GA
"Methods Employed Against That Which Remains Unseen," Gallery 5, SoHo, NY
"Hypnotic Post: Atlanta Abstraction Now," Swan Coach House Gallery, Atlanta, GA
"Summer Writing," Anne Reed Gallery, Ketchum, ID

1999
The Lowe Gallery, Atlanta, GA
-Robert Lowery Gallery, Watkinsville, GA
City Gallery East, Atlanta, GA
"Transitional Heresies," Kwan Galleries, Seoul, Korea

1998
The Lowe Gallery, Atlanta, GA
Lyndon House Art Center, Athens, GA

1997
The Lowe Gallery, Atlanta, GA
"Herstory," Group Show, Open Studios, Athens, GA
"Athens Underground," Group Show, Fay Gold Galleries, Atlanta, GA
Group Show, Gallery B, Atlanta, GA
"Multiple Identities," Group Show, Nexus Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta, GA
Dual Show (with Katie Bauman), Suil Art Gallery, Athens, GA
-Group Show, Emory University Law Library, Atlanta, GA

1996
Group Show, Clayton Street Galleries, Athens, GA
"Traced Crossings," Solo Exhibition, African American Cultural Center, University of GA
Group Show, Student Print Competition, Visual Arts Building, University of GA

1995
Group Show, The Art Place, Hollywood, FL
Solo Exhibition, The Big A Art Show, Atlanta, GA
Solo Exhibition, Visual Arts Building, University of Georgia, Athens, GA
Group Show, Kiang Gallery, Atlanta, GA
Group Show, Yensen's Student Art Exhibition (Winner of Juror's Award), Athens, GA
Group Show, WSSO Art Expo, Tate Center, Athens, GA

1994
Group Show, NASAD Exhibition, Athens, GA
Group Show, Art Place Annual Student Exhibition, Marietta, GA
Solo Exhibition, Last Resort, Athens, GA
-Group Show, Visual Arts Building, University of Georgia, Athens, GA

ARTISTIC ACTIVITIES

2000 Juror, Tate Center Spring Art Show, Athens, GA

1998 Lecture: "Diss/Orienting: What Is "Asian American about Asian American Art?" Department of English, University of Georgia

1997 Lecture: "Why I Can't Be (Just) 'An Artist,'" Department of English, University of Georgia

1996 Lecture: "My Grandfather's Granddaughter," Department of Comparative Literature, University of Georgia

Director, International Olympic Mural project; funding provided by NAFSA: Association of International Educators, The Office of International Services and Programs, and the University of Georgia

Lecture: "The View from Here: One 'Korean' 'Woman,'" Korean Undergraduate Student Association, Athens, GA

Lecture: "Traced Crossings," African American Cultural Center, University of Georgia


HONORS AND AWARDS

1999 Travel and Development Grant ($16,000), R.F. Arts Foundation

1996 Lamar Dodd School of Art Scholarship Award
American Scholar Award

USA Today All-American Academic Team, honorable mention
Representative for Students of the School of Art, Lamar Dodd School of Art Dedication Ceremony, University of Georgia

1995-96 Dean's List (several times)

Juror's Award, Yensen Student Art exhibition, University of Georgia

1994 Selected for Art Place Student Art Competition, Atlanta, GA

Selected for NASAD Art Exhibition, University of Georgia