b. 1977 in South Korea
Minja Gu lives and works in Seoul. Her works appear frail and intimate, and almost indistinguishable from everyday life. Gu is predominately interested in what society uses and then discards. She recycles back into presence and with grace, wit and poetry the many supposedly valueless remnants of daily consumerism, such as leftover coffee cups or plastic bags. In addition to her physical artistic production she also initiates activities that run in parallel, or could be considered parasitic to everyday participation in society. These have included running the marathon at her leisure to complete it in a day-and-a-half, a time-period too slow and also not grandiose enough for the media to remain interested, and a ‘symposium’ on love that involved a quite plausible and again totally unspectacular 12 hour get-together for women of the same age on a roof-top.
Gu has recently participated in the Ssamzie Open Studio exhibition in 2007 and 2008, and in an exhibition at KNUA gallery in 2007. She will soon present a solo exhibition at the Croft Gallery, Seoul.