Solo Exhibitions (Brief)

Omyo Cho’s recent solo exhibitions include 《Altered fluid》 (Soorim Cube, Seoul, 2023), 《Punch-Drunk》 (Small Museum Bogugot, Gimpo, 2023), 《BarrelEye》 (OSISUN, Seoul, 2022), 《Jumbo Shrimp》 (Artist Residency TEMI, Daejeon, 2021), among others.

Group Exhibitions (Brief)

Omyo Cho has also participated in numerous group exhibitions, including 《Cell Struggles》 (FOUNDRY SEOUL, Seoul, 2025), 《Art and Artificial Intelligence》 (Ulsan Art Museum, Ulsan, 2024), 《ZIP》 (ARKO Art Center, Seoul, 2024), 《4℃》 (Sehwa Museum of Art, Seoul, 2024), 《LANDSCAPES》 (Wooson Gallery, Daegu, 2023), 《Data Jungwon》 (Kim Hee Soo Art Center, Seoul, 2022), and 《Shadowland》 (Amado Art Space, Seoul, 2021).

Awards (Selected)

Omyo Cho received the Soorim Art Award in 2020 and was selected for the Art Basel Statements sector in 2024.

Collections (Selected)

Cho’s works are part of the collection at the Soorim Art Center.

Originality & Identity

Omyo Cho’s practice began with an inquiry into the boundaries between memory and existence, gradually expanding into a speculative critique of post-human life and sociotechnical systems. Her debut solo exhibition, 《The Trace of Things Unmentioned》 (Sidae Inn, 2018), sought to restore the presence of lives that no longer exist by translating fictional narratives into sculptural forms. Set in a derelict inn in a jjokbangchon neighborhood, the exhibition explored the uncertain terrain between place and memory, mapping forgotten presences through both material and imagined traces.

In 《Broken Reality》 (Soorim Art Center, 2020), the artist questioned how the notion of truth is distorted in a digital environment saturated with fake news and visual illusions. By focusing on the ambiguous status of digital images—perceived as evidence yet lacking substance—Cho raised critical issues about perception and trust in an era of information overload.

In Jumbo Shrimp (2021), Cho turned her attention to how personal memories and emotions are stored and circulated as data, exploring how aspects of identity become objectified within digital infrastructures. She employed CAPTCHA—a tool used to differentiate humans from machines—as a motif to highlight how human characteristics are increasingly reduced to system-encoded logic, framing these concerns through traditional sculptural language.

This trajectory continues in her ongoing series ‘Nudi Hallucination’ (2022–) and in the exhibition 《Altered Fluid》 (Soorim Cube, 2023), where the artist imagines life beyond the human. Inspired by memory transfer experiments involving sea slugs, ‘Nudi Hallucination’ envisions a future in which memories are digitized, commodified, and editable. These speculative life forms—amphibious and data-embedded—embody ethical and ontological questions surrounding identity in a post-human era.

Style & Contents

Cho’s artworks derive meaning not from their physical forms alone, but from the speculative worlds in which they operate. Her process begins with fictional writing that establishes a conceptual universe, within which she materializes objects that can "function" in that world. In 《The Trace of Things Unmentioned》, for instance, the artist embedded fictional characters and episodes into the real site of an abandoned inn, allowing sculptural objects to act as narrative carriers tied to place-specific histories.

As her interest in the structure of information and the immaterial grew, her work evolved accordingly. In 《Broken Reality》, she used hologram technology to visualize intangible yet present phenomena, prompting viewers to confront the instability of information through physical immersion. In 《Jumbo Shrimp》 (Artist Residency TEMI, 2021), clay sculptures engraved with CAPTCHA patterns and net-like structures made of glass and metal alluded to how fragmented emotions and memories are extracted, stored, and commodified within digital systems.

From 2022 onward, the ‘Nudi Hallucination’ series merged scientific models with fictional biologies to propose sculptural forms that hybridize biological and digital bodies. Using diverse materials—glass, resin, metal, artificial plants—Cho constructed lifeforms that metaphorically depict the internal systems of post-human species. Nudi Hallucination #1 (2022), for example, features a curved glass structure that houses neuron-like filaments, evoking data-embedded organisms inspired by marine invertebrates.

This formal language reaches new levels of complexity in 《Altered Fluid》. By working with high-temperature materials like stainless steel and glass—substances that replace protein-based flesh—Cho reimagines the body as a semi-solid, shape-shifting entity. The resulting sculptures, reminiscent of Paleozoic organisms, suggest future lifeforms capable of adapting to hostile environments and evolving outside the logic of human biology.

Topography & Continuity

Omyo Cho has established a distinctive trajectory by translating science, speculative fiction, and post-human narratives into sculptural language. Her work explores memory, the body, perception, and the conditions of being, often weaving together technological critique with ecological sensitivity. By integrating scientific reports, fictional texts, and experimental models, she navigates the unstable boundaries between fact and fiction, presence and illusion—contributing a unique voice to both the Korean and global art scenes.

Beginning with site-specific, narrative-based explorations of marginal histories, Cho’s practice has steadily evolved into a complex engagement with information systems, artificial cognition, and technological embodiment. Her consistent experimentation with materiality—ranging from traditional clay to immersive VR—alongside the development of self-contained world-building in her writing, allows her to construct intricate, multi-layered aesthetic experiences.

Her selection for Art Basel’s Statements sector in 2024 marks a significant expansion of her presence on the international stage. Moving forward, Cho is likely to continue exploring the speculative aesthetics of post-human life, delving deeper into the dualities of matter and data, biology and simulation. Through these trajectories, she reinforces her position as an artist uniquely capable of visualizing life forms that do not yet exist, and of reimagining coexistence in the age after humans.