David Heo is a Korean-American image maker known for his multidisciplinary practice that seamlessly combines painting, collaging, and various mediums and symbologies. He is inspired by ancient Western mythologies, hyper-saturated 90s animation, and the dualities of hybrid culture, which he incorporates into his work to create anecdotes that recall nostalgia.

 

Heo's practice echoes Deconstructivist tendencies that relate to the fragmentation of surfaces and structures. He often incorporates motifs that refer to the harmonies and dissonances between two uniquely South Korean identity-based political beliefs: Han and Jeong. Heo believes they are synonymous with one another and creates a vision of liminal space by flowing between representation and abstraction.

 

His distinctly bold style is heavily informed by his interpretations of the Asian-American experience and its intersection with American popular culture, iconography, and western art history. Heo employs a variety of techniques, including chopping, skewing, and presenting his work to create disjointed narratives that allow viewers to experience his thought process as he samples between his American and South Korean identities.

 

He received his MFA in 2018 at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and creates artwork that flirts with a variety of genres, including large-scale paintings, works on paper, mural paintings, and brand collaborations. Heo uses elemental materials such as acrylic, paper collage, and crayon to create an intricate interlacing of layers. He intimately improvises between abstraction and biography, synthesizing his lived experiences through his many influences, including short stories, Cy Twombly, and anime.