International Muralist to Speak
May 9, 2003
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Washington, D.C. - VSA arts announces that professor and muralist Kong Ho will lecture Wednesday, June 4 from 3:00-5:00 p.m. at CP Artspace at 1350 I Street, NW in Washington, D.C. Ho is one of 12 accomplished artists with disabilities on exhibit at CP Artspace from May 5-June 20, 2003. The preview, juried exhibit is being shown in advance of the International VSA arts Festival coming to Washington June 9-12, 2004.
Paralyzed as a result of polio, Ho creates work that has been compared to the soothing hush of white noise or the coalescence of the spectrum in white light. He began his artistic journey as a college student at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, inspired by the quietness of his campus. Today his multi-layering of symbols creates a dynamic surface that contrasts form, texture, and color. The resulting image gives a sense of tension and drama, integrating visual concepts of order and disorder. When he starts a new series of work, Ho says he asks himself, How can I push the parameters &while incorporating fresh elements into my work?
Hos award-winning work has been exhibited in more than 70 international and regional exhibitions in venues such as the United Nations General Assembly Building in New York, the Clymer Museum & Gallery in Washington, the Fine Arts Museum in New Mexico, the Osaka Prefecture University in Japan, and the Peking Museum of Art in China.
Ho has an international reputation in the art world. Before immigrating to the United States in 2000, he was on the faculty of the University of Hong Kong. In 1997 he founded the Hong Kong Mural Society, a nonprofit art organization, and has completed murals at public housing estates and in several public high schools. Currently assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, Hos mural design course is the first community-based public art and general education course launched at the University.
VSA arts is an international nonprofit organization founded by Jean Kennedy Smith in 1974 to promote education and lifelong learning opportunities in the arts for people with disabilities. Each year nearly five million people worldwide participate in VSA arts programs in music, dance, drama, creative writing, and the visual arts.
Contact:
Tanya L. Travers
VSA arts
202-628-2800
pr@vsarts.org
# # #
(F) 202-429-0868