Hein Koh

Interviews by Brainard Carey

Hein Koh (b. 1976, Jersey City, N.J.) lives and works in Brooklyn. She graduated from Dartmouth College with a dual B.A. in studio art and psychology in 1998, and received her M.F.A. in painting from Yale University in 2004.

Koh has exhibited internationally, receiving features in Artforum, ArtNews, The Atlantic, The Brooklyn Rail, The Huffington Post, Hyperallergic, New York Magazine, The New York Times, Time Out New York, and The Wall Street Journal, among others. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Garage Museum in Russia and the Xiao Museum in China.

In 2019, the artist mounted her first public installation at Rockefeller Center with the Art Production Fund. In 2021, Koh presented her first institutional solo show at SCAD Savannah College of Art and Design Museum, titled ‘Hope & Sorrow’. The site-specific installation transformed the museum’s Jewel Boxes into gardens for larger-than-life anthropomorphized flowers—made up of the artist’s very own soft-sculptures of metallic spandex, velvet, and satin, set against vinyl backdrops and Astroturf. In 2022, her first exhibition catalogue was printed in conjunction with her solo show ‘On the Edge of a Precipice’ at the gallery. ‘Hope Springs Eternal’ marks our fourth solo project with Koh, and her first in the main gallery space at 16 East 55th Street.

Hein Koh, Awake, 2024, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 72 x 96 inches (182.9 x 243.8 cm)

Hein Koh, Mammo, 2024, Acrylic, oil, and oil stick on canvas, 96 x 72 inches (243.8 x 182.9 cm)

Hein Koh, Four Burners, 2024, Oil and oil stick on canvas, 30 x 22 inches (76.2 x 55.9 cm)

Hein Koh, Drooping Flower, 2024, Acrylic, aluminum foil, archival spray varnish, armature wire, concrete, copper pipe, cotton string, duct tape, epoxy clay, fiberglass cloth, gauze, plaster, styrofoam, Weldbond glue. 62 x 26 x 29 inches (157.5 x 66 x 73.7 cm)