MIAMI, FL.-Our modern world is composed of an amalgamation of different influences from all sorts of different cultures; it is a product of globalization, and a result of centuries of cultural exchanges. In modern times, it is hard to find a culture that is still truly pure in its essence, and has not been touched by another society’s influence.

Artist Emmy Cho acknowledges and embraces this cultural phenomenon and how it applies to herself in her artwork. Her paintings, a combination of a myriad of influences ranging from her Chinese heritage to her American surroundings and her studies in Biological Sciences, create a stunning combination of cultural influences, translated to a visual form.

In Cho’s work, abstraction is combined with a series of elements in order to create a vivid interaction of the sacred and the profane. Her influences come through in the method in which her paintings are executed as much as they do in the content that spawns their creation. They are a testament to the interaction of tactility with transcendence, and how they relate to each other. Using strong influences from traditional Chinese paintings and combining these techniques with mediums and materials not conventionally used in this tradition, she creates a dynamic dialogue between a belief in beauty and a passion for color.

Invention and analysis are put together through painting and bring forth an environment strongly influenced by Taoism, Buddhist cosmology, and other philosophical beliefs. In here, contradictory subjects are made to work together in order to achieve what Cho calls a “visual globalism”- an astute portrayal of modern society, represented in an aesthetically pleasing fashion.

Emmy Cho has exhibited her work in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Chicago, California and New York. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Painting and a Bachelor of Sciences in Neurology, Psychology and Behavior from the University of California at Davis, and received a Masters of Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2006. She is the recipient of several awards, such as the Rhode Island School of Design Graduate Fellowship, the Joan Mitchell Foundation MFA Grant, and the Best in Show award at the City of Davis 3rd Annual Juried Exhibition.