Deb Koo’s still life paintings pay homage to the fleeting moments that mold our lives

Saturated tones and pastel palettes intertwine in Deb Koo’s oil paintings portraying mundane moments, personal experiences and memories from her childhood

Deb Koo’s early art influences and career path

Born in South Korea and raised in the United States, Deb Koo belongs to the new guard of visual artists who combine traditional painting techniques with a contemporary vision and elements of pop culture. From an early age, art and drawing have been the binding force of her relationship with her older brother: «We connected through art as we used to spend a lot of time drawing together; and when we weren’t drawing, we were fighting and arguing. I felt that he was more skilled than me and everyone liked his work more than mine».

For much of her youth Koo relegated her devotion to art to a marginal area of ​​her existence. She entered college as a government major, but after the first semester she realized that the international affairs field of study didn’t suit her and she began to take many different classes: English, history, economics, among others. Art came back forcefully into her life when she took her first drawing class with Professor Jane Lund. From then on, she began to try her hand at other artistic languages, such as sculpture, graphic design, digital art and, finally, oil painting.

The transition to painting: from Korea and to Goodyear Arts residency in Charlotte, North Carolina

The road to becoming a professional painter was not as smooth as she expected: «I thought that because I could draw, I could also paint. But that was not the case. But since I wanted to be good at painting, I decided to continue my studies and after my undergraduate years I moved to South Korea for my master’s degree».

Her dedication and efforts paid off when she was accepted into the artist residency at Goodyear Arts in Charlotte, North Carolina. In that creative ecosystem she had the opportunity to connect with like-minded creative individuals and discover the city’s art scene. «It’s a growing city – she explains – and although it’s not comparable to New York or Los Angeles, more and more spaces devoted to creativity are emerging. I’m grateful that I got into Goodyear Arts, where I not only connected with the local art community and opened my own studio, but also had the opportunity to grow artistically».

Deb Koo on balancing artmaking and teaching at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College

In Charlotte, Koo splits her time between making her own art and teaching at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College. Her role as an instructor continually pushes her to create more art, while also never losing sight of crucial technical aspects, such as color mixing or rendering light and shadow: «I know I have to be a good example to my students, and this pushes me to practice and keep my skills in shape».

«Also, I think that if I weren’t teaching or working and I had a lot of time to spend in my studio, I would maybe not think of it as more precious. Since I became a mother – my child is now two years old – I have to focus and balance my time», she claims.

The Milk and Cookies exhibition at Tube Culture Hall, Milan

Koo recently took part in the group exhibition Milk and Cookies at Tube Culture Hall, Milan (February 12th – March 21st). Curated by Jemma Elliott-Israelson, the show was a journey through nostalgia and intimacy that brought together seventeen figurative works by five young international artists. «I love the exhibition title, not only because I have a sweet tooth but also because the pairing of milk and cookies is something familiar to a lot of people; it’s comforting and brings back nostalgia and childhood memories. I also love Amit Berman’s painting, which Jemma chose for the exhibition poster. With its subjects and subtle color palette, I think it summarizes the whole show», she claims.

Koo addressed the themes of human connectivity and nostalgia tackled by Milk and Cookies in three paintings: Cake for the Holidays (2024), Afternoon Festivities (2024) and The Last Piece (2024). At the center of each composition are a table setting and a cake, recurring elements in Koo’s artistic production. These three works, which draw from personal experiences, create a narrative arc; starting from a still life setting, Koo gradually integrates the human presence, which however never takes over the whole scene.

Still life painting: cakes and festive memories from American culture

«When I was a. student – Koo explains –, our professors made us paint a lot of still life, which can be very boring, and not a lot of students like it. But that’s how I fell in love with painting; and then throughout the years, especially after grad school, I realized that still life painting could be very personable and that through objects I could tell people about myself, my identity, and my experiences». 

She recalls that when she first moved to the US at age four and she was trying to make friends, other kids would often invite her over for celebratory and festive moments, such birthday parties, pool parties or church events, where people gathered around a table and enjoyed all kind of food. «I remember the birthday cake from the first American birthday party I was invited to; it was pink, bright, girly, and artificial colored, and I found it beautiful. Over the years, I started thinking back to that moment in time, and that’s where the cakes and cake variations come from. The inclusion of light and shadow, which comes from my love for still life, connects all the still life objects together and brings out their form, texture, and surface». Koo’s table settings are often inhabited by other inanimate presences; flowers, tableware, fruit, and food of various kinds, including famous brands of packaged food that provide the paintings with a precise temporal location. 

The role of color and photography in Deb Koo’s compositions

Koo’s oil paintings encompass a wide range of human feelings and conditions, while focusing on the emotional resonance of everyday life, amplified by the use of colors, which range from intense and saturated tones to lighter and more delicate palettes, which evoke memories and moments of the past wrapped in a rough veil of nostalgia: «When I was younger, I used to think that the brighter, more artificial and more saturated the colors were, the more delicious the cake was. Now I know it’s not and I try to find a way to balance those saturated colors. Then I have another palette for different kinds of paintings, more subtle and more pastel, that is inspired by old, faded photographs».

Koo is an avid photographer; she uses photography as a tool to collect ideas, memories, and details which later flow into her works. In fact, each painting stems from an idea or a reminiscence that Koo tries to reproduce, first physically and then on the canvas: «It’s hard to stage my compositions; I try to make the most out of what is available at the moment according to the meaning of the painting I’m making. But that’s also the fun of it; limits help you to be creative and work with what you have. I. try to leave a bit of roughness from the beginning, that is not being over careful with the planning or the refinement and let the natural instinct show. It’s important to practice that». 

The subtle human presence: still life paintings as surrogate self-portraits

As the three works presented on the occasion of Milk and Cookies show, people are never the main subjects of Koo’s compositions, yet the human presence is crucial to assimilate their meanings. Every little detail – a misplaced cutlery, a slice of cake abandoned on the plate, or a tastefully laid table – testifies that someone has been there and interacted with the environment. Most of Koo’s paintings act in fact as surrogate self-portraits that provide a visual narrative of her past and present life.

In other paintings, however, Koo provides the audience with a hint about the identity of the depicted people, without ever revealing it completely: a shadow, a hand, a back or a fragment of a face. «In the past, when I did try to include more of the face or figure, I felt that they took away too much attention from the table and the still life, which I wanted to focus on – she explains. And although a lot of the still life I paint are meaningful to me, I never include myself, except maybe just the hands or arms». The incomplete faces, whose eyes are left outside the perimeter of the canvas, stem from the desire not to provide the observer with a focal point on which to fix their gaze, but on the contrary to offer them the possibility of connecting not only with the human figures, but with the whole scene and the inanimate presences that inhabit it.

Deb Koo

Koo holds an MFA in Western Painting from Ewha Womans University, Seoul (2017) and a BA in Studio Art from Smith College, Northampton, MA (2013). She has exhibited internationally, including solo shows such as “With Sugar on Top” at Tchotchke Gallery, Brooklyn (2023), and “Sweet” at Sozo Gallery, Charlotte (2022). 

Agnese Torres