Young Joon Kwak

Young Joon Kwak (born 1984) is an artist and musician based in Los Angeles. Much of their work focuses on queer bodies, how they have been represented in art history, and how they form communities. They have exhibited and performed at Art Museums around the world. Kwak is the lead singer in the band Xina Xurner, and a founding member of the collective Mutant Salon. Kwak's Sculptural work has been exhibited locally and internationally. They have described the work as investigating “traditional patriarchal standards of beauty in relation to the history of white supremacy, imperialism, and current social justice issues.” Their sculptures often consist of amorphous bodily forms are made out of plaster, plastics, resin, metal, fibreglass and lights. In a 2014 review for Hyperallergic Magazine, Alicia Eler wrote of Kwak's exhibition, "Young Joon Kwak’s work is neither binging nor representing — it is a purging, a releasing of one identity not necessarily for another, but for the continued evolution of the self in its variously emerging forms. The snake is free. She is a mutant alien being, continually evolving, a trans/feminine entity of force." (Wikipedia) ...

Commonwealth and Council is a gallery in Koreatown, Los Angeles founded in 2010. Our program is rooted in our commitment to explore how a community of artists can sustain our co-existence through generosity and hospitality. Commonwealth and Council celebrates our manifold identities and experiences through the shared dialogue of art—championing practices by women, queer, POC, and our ally artists to build counter-histories that reflect our individual and collective realities.