untitled ( JK630 ) 2006 rolled paper and glue,  h: 38.1 x w: 73.7 x d: 27.9 cm



untitled ( JK 632 ), 2007-08 rolled paper, glue and calligraphy ink
installation of 14 works, dimensions variable

"[Paper] is familiar to everybody, and not very special, yet making something 3D out of it – that is something different. I didn’t want to make something on paper; I wanted to make something with it." - Jae Ko

Untitled Prussian Blue JK 209, rolled paper, ink, 2004

untitled ( JK 634 ), 2008 kraft paper, installation view

untitled ( JK 635 ), 2008 kraft paper, installation, dimensions variable

Solo Exhibition, Marsha Mateyka Gallery, January 2009 kraft paper, installation view

Jae Ko's most recent sculptures are more aggressive in their physicality and more complex in their surface treatment than her earlier work. Ko uses large, tightly bound spools of adding-machine paper that she wraps, folds, and contorts like taffy. Her previous exhibitions featured low, largely symmetrical iridescent black or colored wall reliefs-round, ovoid, and square- whose subtle surface modulations suggested labia, the glyphs of Asian signature seals, or topographic models of old, eroded hills. The Washington, DC-based artist, born in Korea and educated in Tokyo, travels extensively in North America, finding inspiration in unusual and extreme natural forms. The wall reliefs and floor pieces in her new show were in fact inspired by the wind-blasted trunks of the ancient bristlecone pines that the artist encountered on a trip to California's White Mountains. - by Nord Wennerstrom