TERENCE KOH
(Born in 1977 in Beijing, China)
Terence Koh is a Canadian artist who has also worked under the alias “asianpunkboy”. The artist’s work spans a range of media, including drawing, sculpture, video, performance, and the internet. Originally working under the alias asianpunkboy, Koh designed zines and custom-made books. His recent work has expanded to include durational performances, complex installations, and the exploration of natural ecosystems. Much of his diverse work involves queer, punk, and pornographic sensibilities.
In 2008, he was listed in Out magazine’s “Out 100 People of the Year”.
Koh’s work has been associated with New Gothic Art.
In nothingtoodoo, his first solo show at the Mary Boone Gallery, Koh, “dressed in white pajamalike clothes, slowly circles a beautiful cone-shaped pile of rocky solar salt — 8 feet high and 24 feet across — on his knees.” So Roberta Smith described the work in an appreciative March 2011, review. “This is performance art reduced to a bare and relentless rite in a space that has been stripped down to a kind of temple. (Its regal proportions help.) … Maybe the work is an extended apology for past bad-boy behavior.”
In 2008, he created the Terence Koh Show on YouTube, in which visitors to his home are either interviewed by Koh, or interview Koh themselves. Each show is usually not more than a few minutes in length. Some episodes are more abstract, such as when he plays the video forward but edits the sound to play backwards.
Notable guests have included Marina Abramović, Hans Ulrich Obrist, and most recently, Lady Gaga. In the clip with Lady Gaga titled “88 pearls”, Koh counts a bowl of pearls with Lady Gaga, who is wearing a costume inspired by Koh’s sculpture from his project Boy By The Sea.
Koh’s affiliation with the pop star began at the 2010 Grammys, where Lady Gaga performed on a piano designed by Koh specifically for the occasion. In the tradition of Piero Manzoni, Koh has gold-plated and sold his own feces for a total of $500,000.00 to collectors.
He explores such diverse subjects as mythology, religion, identity, power, fashion and sexuality, in an often-provocative manner, charged with possible symbolic readings. He is most well-known for his monochromatic installations, and ritualistic performances.
Early life and education
Koh was raised in Mississauga, Ontario, and now lives in Northern California. He is a Chinese-Canadian artist who received degrees from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, Vancouver and The University of Waterloo, Ontario.
He had a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2007) and many others.
His work is held in permanent collections of institutions such as:
the Museum of Modern Art, New York;
the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York;
the Tate Modern, London, UK.
Koh has previously worked with:
Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac,
Sean Kelly Gallery,
Mary Boone Gallery,
Peres Projects.
He is represented by Moran Bondaroff in Los Angeles