Flowers by Justina Ko

Justina Ko has worked at ECF Art Centers’ Downtown LA studio since 2010. Ko is an obsessive mark-maker, making patterns and grids as well as repeating and superimposing images to create unique and complex pieces. The process she uses for painting and printmaking are very similar; the labor-intensive removal/blocking of areas on a printing plate, as well as the addition/repetition of ink layers, mimics the techniques used in her mixed media paintings. In both cases, Ko uses geometric shapes and lines for blocking, applies color, then repeats the process until a colorful and abstracted grid reminiscent of mid-century modern art emerges. Ko has been drawing since childhood. When she first arrived at the Downtown Art Center, she loved filling the white space on paper with rows of colorful flowers, circles or squares. Since then, she has moved away from drawing simple shapes to creating heavily layered and textured acrylic paintings, as well as highly complex prints. The extensive time, energy and patience Ko puts into her unique creations is evident, resulting in a high demand for her artwork.