Solo Exhibitions (Brief)

Koo was represented by solo exhibitions including 《Monocoque: Principles of the Garden》 (SPACE ÆFTER, Seoul, 2023), 《On Growth and Form of Software》 (Incheon Art Platform, Incheon, 2021), 《Development of Editing Methods for Website Structure》 (Space Willing N Dealing, Seoul, 2020), and 《PBB》 (Dimension Variable, Seoul, 2018).

Group Exhibitions (Brief)

Koo has also participated in numerous group exhibitions such as the 24th 《SONGEUN Art Award Exhibition》 (SONGEUN, Seoul, 2024), 《Rubbing Your Name》 (Ilwoo Space, Seoul, 2024), 《To You, I Say》 (MMCA Residency Goyang, Goyang, 2023), and 《Gongjungchelyeon (Air Practice)》 (LaLa &, Seoul, 2021).

Residencies (Selected)

Jamyoung Koo has participated in residency programs at Gongju Culture and Arts Village Creative Residency (2024), MMCA Residency Goyang (2023), and Incheon Art Platform (2021).

Originality & Identity

Jamyoung Koo’s work consistently begins with the attempt to reveal invisible structures. In his first solo exhibition 《PBB》(2018) at Dimensions Variable, he brought the processes of software into the exhibition space, exploring how the boundaries between hardware and software could reflect and disrupt each other. From the outset, his imagination has traversed the idea that virtual code could become the very structure of physical space, and that a datafied body might function as a new entity in future society.

In his solo exhibition 《Development of Editing Methods for Website Structure》(2020) at Space Willing N Dealing, the artist regarded the abstract environment of a website as a “frame,” and by dismantling and reassembling it, visualized the point where the virtual and the real come into contact. Here, the subject expands beyond mere technical analysis into the question of how unseen systems sustain and transform physical space.
At his solo exhibition 《On Growth and Form of Software》(2021) held at Incheon Art Platform, Koo paralleled the evolutionary process of code—gradually transformed through repeated user interventions—with the growth of muscles. The ‘Soft Muscle’(2021) series embodies how incomplete and vulnerable code acquires new bodies through endless cycles of modification and resistance. For Koo, software is no longer a flawless language but closer to a living organism that tears and heals.

In his more recent exhibitions 《Monocoque: Principles of the Garden》(2023) and the ‘Software Laundering’(2024) series, his focus shifts into social and political contexts. Works that deal with North Korea’s OS ‘RedStar’ or closed internet code structures indicate that technology is not merely a functional apparatus but a political landscape that reveals power and regulation.

Style & Contents

Koo’s formal approach initially began by directly confronting digital environments with the structure of the exhibition space. In 《PBB》 he transcribed the artboard of design software onto the exhibition windows, realizing the abstract rules of software as actual spatial divisions. This dual structure, in which hardware and software mirror each other’s problems, was the starting point of his formal experimentation.

In 《Development of Editing Methods for Website Structure》 he transformed HTML and JavaScript code into molecular structures, combining them with hardware devices such as servers, routers, and LAN systems. In this process, he used molecular models and molecular graphic programs to translate code into three-dimensional sculpture, materializing digital language into an exhibition space that resembled a laboratory.

In 《On Growth and Form of Software》, the ‘Soft Muscle’ series employed PLA, CFRP (carbon fiber), and water-transfer printing techniques to shape bundles of code like muscles. This was an instance of translating code from a mere sign into a sculptural body that grows through resistance and intervention.

Later, in 《Monocoque: Principles of the Garden》 he used materials such as aluminum, tin, and bentonite to cast the surfaces of software code. Operating systems and viruses named after nature—such as ‘Gooroom,’ ‘RedStar’, and ‘Hare’—were reconfigured as sculptural objects, presenting the software ecosystem as a metaphorical garden landscape. Subsequently, the ‘Software Laundering’(2024) series combined industrial media such as aluminum, cupronickel, and UV printing with biological methodologies (AlphaFold, Genome Browser), converting code structures into the materiality of DNA and proteins.

Topography & Continuity

Jamyoung Koo has consistently maintained an original artistic vision: translating virtual structures into material form. He treats the invisible world of software and code not as mere technical objects, but as unseen orders that underpin life and society, and renders them into sculptural language. The vulnerabilities and imperfections revealed in the process transform technology from an absolute system into a living entity.

His trajectory extends from the technological imagination of 《PBB》, through the structural inquiries of 《Development of Editing Methods for Website Structure》, the biological metaphors of 《On Growth and Form of Software》, and most recently to the social and political contexts of 《Monocoque: Principles of the Garden》 and the ‘Software Laundering’ series. This journey demonstrates a continuous expansion and shift in his way of dealing with technology—not only in subject and concept but also in form and medium.

Koo takes as his strategy the act of “putting software into crisis.” This means overturning the inherent integrity of technology and reinterpreting it as a fragile and organic being. His work can be seen as one of the rare practices that articulate technological critique through the sculptural language of contemporary art.

Looking forward, his practice will continue to expand into diverse contexts. Having already introduced metaphors that cross code, biology, ecology, and politics, his explorations are likely to unfold not only within exhibition spaces but also across social institutions and everyday environments. Within contemporary art, his work is poised to establish itself as a new language that bridges the virtual and the real, technology and society.