Daily Inspiration: Meet Isolina Minjeong

Today we’d like to introduce you to Isolina Minjeong.

Hi Isolina, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
My journey into ceramics started during my second year of college at MICA.

The coolest guys (my professors) Mat Karas & Ryan Rennie introduced me to ceramic sculpture and had me fall in love with clay pretty immediately.

Ditching all my classes to get as much studio time as I could, this excitement for large-scale building ultimately lead me to my mentor, professor, and overall badass artist that I look up to a lot, Victoria Jang. We shared a supersonic love for ambitious tasks, selfhood, and figurative sculpture that I haven’t stopped obsessing over since. Meeting her was game over for me because she instilled within me that I not only have a place in this world, but the ability to build one that makes sense to me.

That was almost six years ago now. Since then I’ve completed multiple residency programs, assisted numerous artists, and exhibited my work all around the country. Presently I am continuing my body of work, but this time in collaboration with the love of my life as we prepare for our first exhibition at the Smoll Gallery in Kansas City. On top of it all, I just began my position as the co-director of a brand new ceramics studio located in Koreatown, Manhattan called DOCLAY! I never thought that I’d be involved with the tradition of ceramics to this extent, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I worked 40 hours a week at Home Depot during my first residency trying to afford to build ridiculously large; moved to New York alone with $600 in my hand, jumping turnstiles and eating dollar slice pizzas; backed my truck off a cliff in North Carolina during an assistantship with Cristina Córdova; got my heart broken so badly that the only thing I could do was sculpt bricks with sad poetry written all over it…

Art isn’t an easy lifestyle, man. It’ll break you down a million times and scare the shit out of you, even make you wonder why you’re doing it in the first place. But what you have to remember is that resilience is something artists have the most of and takes many of us far. But most importantly, the universe is conspiring for good.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
My practice actively investigates the symbiotic friendship between man and clay—i.e. what it means to shape, and be shaped by one another’s legacies. To live a life where we get to take care of each other. Blending the history of the monument with cartoon imagery, my society of ceramic protagonists is fueled by this sentiment. Known as the ‘Woogies’, they become adorned with symbols functioning as markers of time spent and people loved. My hope is to reorient the viewer’s sentiment toward ceramics into one that is satirical, critical, and kind.

I’m most known for building large and in a style that has a child-like energy. My love for clay has connected me with some spectacular people and has redefined what community means to me. I’m most proud of not giving up on building at this scale and problem-solving ways to learn more about the rigor it takes to pursue it, like learning from spectacular artists and sharing the skills and artworks that come from those exchanged with the world. My last show curated by Milly Cai and Maddi Shenk for Land to Sea’s fall exhibition, “Conversations with a Stranger”, was a cool moment I’m proud of because I was able to see the most work I ever made at once and have it displayed so lovingly.

I think my love for people, clay, and the unknown will always set me apart from others. I trust the universe a lot and know that not only does it hold me but that I carry it within myself.

If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I spent a lot of time with my dad in Chicago. He was a professional tennis coach and we would watch Flight of the Concords, Three Stooges, and Austin Power, and listen to a lot of comedy and John Mayer together. I got into a lot of trouble and was alone a lot because I ended up growing up too fast…

My single mother (who is now a volunteer firefighter) had the craziest work ethic that I will always look up to. Watching her find her place in this world, in combination with my dad’s goofy personality, amalgamated into a pretty weird person. But my friends say I’m alright.

Contact Info:

• Website: isolinaminjeong.com
• Instagram: @isolinaminjeong

Image Credits
Sophia Wilson (2022) and Rebecca Gohn (2021)