Nationality Canadian Name Germaine Koh | Books Germaine Koh, works | |
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Born 1967 George Town, Malaysia Education | ||
Candelabrum by germaine koh
Germaine Koh (born 1967) is a Malaysian-born internationally active Canadian conceptual artist.
Contents
- Candelabrum by germaine koh
- Early life
- Education
- Artistic career
- Other projects
- Major exhibitions
- References
Early life
Koh was born in George Town, Malaysia. She emigrated to Canada with her family at the age of two and was raised in Armstrong, British Columbia.
Education
Koh studied fine arts and art history at the University of Ottawa and obtain a Master of Fine Arts in 1993 from Hunter College in New York.
Artistic career
Koh works out of Vancouver, B.C., but has described herself as having "no fixed address" Her art draws the use of everyday objects and familiar concepts in order to examine how people interact with those they encounter while moving through the world. For example, her piece "Call", is an old telephone in a public space. When the phone is picked up it randomly dials a number of a participant that has agreed to have conversations with strangers at any time of the day.
There isn't a typical "Germaine Koh" piece - she utilizes many different materials for every piece she creates, yet each piece encompasses an ideology, perhaps best said by Koh herself in a Rhizome.org interview:
I would characterize my work as a whole as an attempt to be attentive to the poetics of daily life by focusing on those phenomena that shape everyday experience, often slightly below the threshold of notice (and, yes, value)
.
Koh's work has been shown at many galleries, including the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art in 2005, the Liverpool Biennial and the Art Gallery of Alberta in 2004, Frankfurter Kunstverein in 2003, Bloomberg SPACE in 2003, and in many other galleries across the globe.
In 2004 Koh was a finalist for the Sobey Art Award and in 2010 she won a VIVA Award in recognition of her outstanding achievement as a mid-career artist in British Columbia.
Other projects
In addition to her artistic work, Koh is co-founder of the Toronto-based record label and artist-management company Weewerk. She is also an athlete. Koh played varsity volleyball and badminton at the University of Ottawa and is a former captain of roller derby team the Terminal City All-Stars. Her interest in the relationship between creativity and athleticism resulted in the creation of The Koh-Verchere Award for Athletic and Creative Excellence, an Emily Carr University of Art and Design student award, and the establishment of Vancouver's League, an open group of people who play games invented by the participants.