Yangshuo Sunset | Brendan George Ko
2013
24 x 20 inches
Edition of 15, 4 APs
ABOUT THE ARTWORK
In 2013, China was budding into a tourist destination and for the first time in 52 years, Ko’s father would return to his motherland. After escaping the communists and leaving behind his family and ancestral home, Yu Sum had dreams of returning to his country, which had been forbidden for so long. All scattered across the globe, the entire Ko family united and met in Beijing where their month-long journey through China began. Halfway through the trip they found themselves in Yangshuo, a sleepy town famous for its finger mountains that rise from the earth like giant tree trucks missing their canopy.
ABOUT BRENDAN GEORGE KO
Brendan George Ko (b.1986, Toronto, ON) is a document-based storyteller raised in Ontario, New Mexico, Texas, and Hawai’i, and is now based in Toronto and Maui.
During his early years, living in rural New Mexico, Ko heard of a spirit — one that lives within landscape with the power to possess us. He learned that though we may leave the land behind, its spirit will follow us always. This understanding of spirit is carried through Ko’s entire practice. Using photos, written and oral narratives, video, and sound recordings as conduits of storytelling, Ko aspires to allow this spirit of a place, person, memory or feeling to cycle on. It is the creation of a document that holds an indexical relationship to that which it represents, acting as an accessible instrument for creating understanding between different peoples, places, and times. Inspired in-part by the many places he calls home, Ko creates and recreates histories, his own and otherwise, often tending to the in-between. He believes that it is not about truth nor accuracy, but rather caring for this spirit and for memory.
Ko’s recent work has been largely based around the Hawaiian archipelago: learning, living, and telling stories that range from the ecology of the islands, to its myth and original culture, as well as its history and politics.
Ko received his BFA in photography from the Ontario College of Art & Design in 2010, and completed a Masters in Visual Arts at the University of Toronto in 2014. There his practice shifted further into video and sound under the guidance of Kim Tomczak. Ko has shown his work locally and internationally, including solo exhibitions with Angell Gallery (Toronto); CONTACT Gallery (Toronto); and LE Gallery (Toronto) and group exhibitions with Frogner Stasjon (Oslo); Red Hook Labs (Brooklyn); Birch Contemporary (Toronto); and Camden Image Gallery (London). Ko has been the recipient of numerous awards including CONTACT Photography Festival Portfolio Award (2017), Magenta Flash Forward Finalist (2018) and Red Hook Lab’s New Artist Finalist (2018). He is also included within several collections including TD Bank and BMO Financial Group. In addition he has been commissioned to produce work for The New York Times, New Yorker, Vogue, Bloomberg Businessweek, The Walrus and Patagonia.
Selected solo exhibitions: Moemoeā, CONTACT Gallery, Toronto, ON (2018); We Soon Be Nigh!, LE Gallery, Toronto, ON (2016); Proof of Existence, LE Gallery, Toronto, ON (2014); Atmospheres, Angell Gallery, Toronto, ON (2012).
Selected group exhibitions: Radial Survey, Pittsburg, PA (2019); – And Cheese, Art Souterrain, Montreal, QC (2019); New Artists II, Photo Vogue Festival, Milan, Italy (2018); New Artists II, Frogner Stasjon, Oslo, Norway (2018); Reconfiguring Worlds, Birch Contemporary, Toronto, ON (2018); New Artists II, Red Hook Labs, Brooklyn, NY (2018); Muse, Gallery 44, Toronto, ON (2015); Island Projects, Gibraltar Point Artscape, Toronto, ON (2015); The Ones We Love, Camden Image Gallery, London, England (2015).
2013
24 x 20 inches
Edition of 15, 4 APs
ABOUT THE ARTWORK
In 2013, China was budding into a tourist destination and for the first time in 52 years, Ko’s father would return to his motherland. After escaping the communists and leaving behind his family and ancestral home, Yu Sum had dreams of returning to his country, which had been forbidden for so long. All scattered across the globe, the entire Ko family united and met in Beijing where their month-long journey through China began. Halfway through the trip they found themselves in Yangshuo, a sleepy town famous for its finger mountains that rise from the earth like giant tree trucks missing their canopy.
ABOUT BRENDAN GEORGE KO
Brendan George Ko (b.1986, Toronto, ON) is a document-based storyteller raised in Ontario, New Mexico, Texas, and Hawai’i, and is now based in Toronto and Maui.
During his early years, living in rural New Mexico, Ko heard of a spirit — one that lives within landscape with the power to possess us. He learned that though we may leave the land behind, its spirit will follow us always. This understanding of spirit is carried through Ko’s entire practice. Using photos, written and oral narratives, video, and sound recordings as conduits of storytelling, Ko aspires to allow this spirit of a place, person, memory or feeling to cycle on. It is the creation of a document that holds an indexical relationship to that which it represents, acting as an accessible instrument for creating understanding between different peoples, places, and times. Inspired in-part by the many places he calls home, Ko creates and recreates histories, his own and otherwise, often tending to the in-between. He believes that it is not about truth nor accuracy, but rather caring for this spirit and for memory.
Ko’s recent work has been largely based around the Hawaiian archipelago: learning, living, and telling stories that range from the ecology of the islands, to its myth and original culture, as well as its history and politics.
Ko received his BFA in photography from the Ontario College of Art & Design in 2010, and completed a Masters in Visual Arts at the University of Toronto in 2014. There his practice shifted further into video and sound under the guidance of Kim Tomczak. Ko has shown his work locally and internationally, including solo exhibitions with Angell Gallery (Toronto); CONTACT Gallery (Toronto); and LE Gallery (Toronto) and group exhibitions with Frogner Stasjon (Oslo); Red Hook Labs (Brooklyn); Birch Contemporary (Toronto); and Camden Image Gallery (London). Ko has been the recipient of numerous awards including CONTACT Photography Festival Portfolio Award (2017), Magenta Flash Forward Finalist (2018) and Red Hook Lab’s New Artist Finalist (2018). He is also included within several collections including TD Bank and BMO Financial Group. In addition he has been commissioned to produce work for The New York Times, New Yorker, Vogue, Bloomberg Businessweek, The Walrus and Patagonia.
Selected solo exhibitions: Moemoeā, CONTACT Gallery, Toronto, ON (2018); We Soon Be Nigh!, LE Gallery, Toronto, ON (2016); Proof of Existence, LE Gallery, Toronto, ON (2014); Atmospheres, Angell Gallery, Toronto, ON (2012).
Selected group exhibitions: Radial Survey, Pittsburg, PA (2019); – And Cheese, Art Souterrain, Montreal, QC (2019); New Artists II, Photo Vogue Festival, Milan, Italy (2018); New Artists II, Frogner Stasjon, Oslo, Norway (2018); Reconfiguring Worlds, Birch Contemporary, Toronto, ON (2018); New Artists II, Red Hook Labs, Brooklyn, NY (2018); Muse, Gallery 44, Toronto, ON (2015); Island Projects, Gibraltar Point Artscape, Toronto, ON (2015); The Ones We Love, Camden Image Gallery, London, England (2015).
2013
24 x 20 inches
Edition of 15, 4 APs
ABOUT THE ARTWORK
In 2013, China was budding into a tourist destination and for the first time in 52 years, Ko’s father would return to his motherland. After escaping the communists and leaving behind his family and ancestral home, Yu Sum had dreams of returning to his country, which had been forbidden for so long. All scattered across the globe, the entire Ko family united and met in Beijing where their month-long journey through China began. Halfway through the trip they found themselves in Yangshuo, a sleepy town famous for its finger mountains that rise from the earth like giant tree trucks missing their canopy.
ABOUT BRENDAN GEORGE KO
Brendan George Ko (b.1986, Toronto, ON) is a document-based storyteller raised in Ontario, New Mexico, Texas, and Hawai’i, and is now based in Toronto and Maui.
During his early years, living in rural New Mexico, Ko heard of a spirit — one that lives within landscape with the power to possess us. He learned that though we may leave the land behind, its spirit will follow us always. This understanding of spirit is carried through Ko’s entire practice. Using photos, written and oral narratives, video, and sound recordings as conduits of storytelling, Ko aspires to allow this spirit of a place, person, memory or feeling to cycle on. It is the creation of a document that holds an indexical relationship to that which it represents, acting as an accessible instrument for creating understanding between different peoples, places, and times. Inspired in-part by the many places he calls home, Ko creates and recreates histories, his own and otherwise, often tending to the in-between. He believes that it is not about truth nor accuracy, but rather caring for this spirit and for memory.
Ko’s recent work has been largely based around the Hawaiian archipelago: learning, living, and telling stories that range from the ecology of the islands, to its myth and original culture, as well as its history and politics.
Ko received his BFA in photography from the Ontario College of Art & Design in 2010, and completed a Masters in Visual Arts at the University of Toronto in 2014. There his practice shifted further into video and sound under the guidance of Kim Tomczak. Ko has shown his work locally and internationally, including solo exhibitions with Angell Gallery (Toronto); CONTACT Gallery (Toronto); and LE Gallery (Toronto) and group exhibitions with Frogner Stasjon (Oslo); Red Hook Labs (Brooklyn); Birch Contemporary (Toronto); and Camden Image Gallery (London). Ko has been the recipient of numerous awards including CONTACT Photography Festival Portfolio Award (2017), Magenta Flash Forward Finalist (2018) and Red Hook Lab’s New Artist Finalist (2018). He is also included within several collections including TD Bank and BMO Financial Group. In addition he has been commissioned to produce work for The New York Times, New Yorker, Vogue, Bloomberg Businessweek, The Walrus and Patagonia.
Selected solo exhibitions: Moemoeā, CONTACT Gallery, Toronto, ON (2018); We Soon Be Nigh!, LE Gallery, Toronto, ON (2016); Proof of Existence, LE Gallery, Toronto, ON (2014); Atmospheres, Angell Gallery, Toronto, ON (2012).
Selected group exhibitions: Radial Survey, Pittsburg, PA (2019); – And Cheese, Art Souterrain, Montreal, QC (2019); New Artists II, Photo Vogue Festival, Milan, Italy (2018); New Artists II, Frogner Stasjon, Oslo, Norway (2018); Reconfiguring Worlds, Birch Contemporary, Toronto, ON (2018); New Artists II, Red Hook Labs, Brooklyn, NY (2018); Muse, Gallery 44, Toronto, ON (2015); Island Projects, Gibraltar Point Artscape, Toronto, ON (2015); The Ones We Love, Camden Image Gallery, London, England (2015).