Josie KO is a Glasgow-based artist who graduated from Glasgow School of Art in 2018. Since then, she has been a committee member at Transmission Gallery, worked full time at Glasgow School of Art’s Student’s Association, and has exhibited in Dundee, London and Switzerland.
Purposely working with non-traditional methods and mediums, Josie uses these materials to construct Black figures in a way that glorifies the handmade and the artist’s hand. The scale of her works makes them unavoidably noticeable, counteracting the erasure of Black women in art history and Black female artists.
Bringing together a kitsch DIY aesthetic full of colour and humour with dark gothic undertones, her work playfully presents narratives which speak towards the Black British experience in a white dominated environment. Focusing on the white gaze on the black body, and decolonising art institutions, she presents an underrepresented perspective while exploring her thoughts and feelings around her own identity, investigating intersectionality and her upbringing as a multifaceted person.