Hee J. Jo

Born in Seoul in 1987 and currently based in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, Hee J. Jo is more than just a visual artist who applies color to a canvas. She is also a floral designer working with the fleeting beauty of plants, and an animal rescue activist saving the lives of dogs in crisis. Her deep and expansive compassion—evident when she unhesitatingly states that the one thing everyone must know about the world is that "there are simply too many dogs that need rescuing"—is a crucial key to understanding her entire artistic world. Her daily routine of caring for and nurturing flowers and living creatures serves not only as a source of artistic inspiration but also as a way of life, forging connections with an unfamiliar world as a foreigner and cultivating her own distinct warmth.

At the foundation of such a profound artistic world are the firm roots of her university studies in South Korea, where she majored in Educational Psychology and English Literature. In particular, her deep exploration of abnormal psychology during her college years—and the relentless questions she posed about how humans acquire emotions, behavioral patterns, and the boundaries between "normal and abnormal" defined by society—became the methodology for her art. She does not pursue mere visual beauty; grounded in psychological insight, she experiments by shattering the frameworks of tradition, universal values, and rational thought. Furthermore, her university years firmly implanted a feminist perspective within her. This would later serve as the decisive force that allows her to visualize and deconstruct her physical and psychological experiences as a woman through intricate layers on canvas.