Tempest 2017
Ripped paper drawing 22x30 unframed
Wings 2018
Ripped paper drawing 22x30 unframed
Man O War 2016
Ripped paper drawing 22x30 unframed
Roots 2018
Ripped paper drawing 22x30 unframed
Vibrations 2018
Ripped paper drawing 30x44 framed
Return 2020
Ripped paper drawing 44 x 60 framed
Muse 2018
Ripped paper drawing 30x44 framed
Artist Biography
Colleen Ho (b. 1971, Missouri) was raised in Youngstown, Ohio. After graduating from the University of Notre Dame in 1993 with a degree in design, she moved to Brooklyn, NY. In 1997, she received a Master of Fine Arts degree from Pratt Institute of Art majoring in painting as well as a minor in art criticism. Ho does not work from sketches; her compositions are guided by an innate sense of order and balance. The repetitive gesture of carving into the surface with a thumbtack is tedious, but over time builds and creates a larger gesture that is graceful and seemingly spontaneous. Ho incorporates intuitive mark making, both primal and meditative, leaving a delicate, tactile relief on the surface of her work. From a distance the work may appear as an ordinary sheet of neutral-toned paper, yet upon closer investigation forms and shapes emerge creating movement within the frame.
Ho’s work has been exhibited globally including Brooklyn, NY, Nyack, NY, Huntington, NY, Loveladies, NJ, New Orleans, LA, Lafayette, LA, Baltimore, MD, Berlin, Germany, Seoul, South Korea, and the Bronx Museum of the Arts. She has been awarded with a purchase award from the College of Notre Dame, MD as well as the Trestle Artist Residency in Brooklyn, NY. Ho’s work has been published by The University of Notre Dame, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, the New York Times, nyartsmagazine, Studio Visit Magazine, Acadiana Center for the Arts, Papercut Magazine, and The SandPaper to name a few. Her work can be found in public and private collections around the world such as Riverview House, New Brunswick, NJ, Johnson & Johnson, Inc., 277 5th Ave., New York, NY, Club Monaco, Inc., New York, NY and London, England, and Notre Dame of Maryland University, Baltimore, MD.
Artist Statement
“Often our efforts are invisible, repetitive and mundane; but we are quietly and diligently building our beautiful ethereal world. My drawings allude to visual patterns and structures found in nature. They are created by ripping paper with a thumbtack repeatedly, leaving a delicate, tactile relief to the surface. It is an organic process of mark-making completed over several sessions; both obsessive and meditative. Images oscillate between topographical and biological forms, gestural and staid compositions.”
