Breakout Artists 2020: David Heo
David Heo, “Autonomous,” oil stick, crayon, graphite, flashe and latex paint on canvas, 2020
Newcity - April 2020
“With my work, I’m interested in showcasing metaphorical narratives of my experiences, thoughts, desires, regrets and fantasies as a human being,” David Heo says. The desire to share one’s life through storytelling is universal, but the tools to create those stories are specific to the individual and their socio-historical background. While growing up in Acworth, Georgia, Heo’s parents would tell traditional Korean folklore, and he also became absorbed in Greek and Egyptian mythology.
Ancient civilizations depicted stories upon everyday items, notably ceramics. For Heo, the soft green celadon Korean vases around his home, bearing symbols such as cranes, tigers, lotuses and chrysanthemums, left an impression. In recent works, Heo collages the surface of the vase, commonly used in ancient pottery, to illustrate a range of folklore from grand, mythic metanarratives to quiet frames of daily life. Heo renders the traditional into the contemporary as he processes his personal experiences in the moment and, as a twenty-seven-year-old living in an urban city, that means youth and nightlife. Heo shares: “Everything about my upbringing comes into play within my works, whether direct imagery, colors or animals. I have this vast lexicon of symbology and culture. I plan on utilizing all of that. But I’m going to always re-translate all of this to describe how I interpret everything about the world today.”