Rob Rhee
USA, b. 1982, Bronx, NY, lives and works in Seattle, WA
Rob Rhee, Untitled (Slab), 2025, Gourd sherds, staples, dowel rods, copper tubing, wood, pigment. Photo by Jueqian Fang.
Rob Rhee: my hands were waving as if my feet
Aug 27 - Nov 14
6901 SE 110th Ave, Portland, OR 97266
Sat: 12:00 – 5:00 PM (Or by appointment)
About the Project
Rob Rhee (Seattle) is an artist and writer whose sculptures stage encounters between organic growth and fabricated systems, often through long-term collaborations with plants, farmers, and seasonal cycles of cultivation. For the 2026 C45 Triennial, Rhee presents my hands were waving as if my feet at SE Cooper Contemporary. Developed through the cultivation of gourds in the community garden at the University of Washington, the project draws on traditional Korean farming techniques such as JADAM, combining empirical knowledge with a more elemental, near-alchemical approach. Rhee’s practice is shaped by agricultural time: planting, tending, and harvesting become part of the sculptural process itself. In dialogue with his broader research into grafting and plant interdependence, this project approaches cultivation as both material method and model for reimagining collectivity.
Artist Bio
Rhee is an Assistant Professor in the Interdisciplinary Visual Art program at the University of Washington. His dual practice as an educator and a maker investigates situations on the precipice of formlessness, where a biological system is engaged but never fully controlled. His work has been exhibited extensively throughout the Pacific Northwest at the Portland Art Museum, the Frye Art Museum, the Jacob Lawrence Gallery, Hedreen Gallery, and the Sarah Spurgeon Gallery at Central Washington University. Nationally and internationally, his sculptures have been shown at White Columns (NY), the Hunterdon Art Museum (NJ), the Fort Worth Contemporary Gallery (TX), and the Ilmin Museum of Art (Seoul, South Korea), as well as in major international surveys including the 10th Berlin Biennale and the Changwon Biennale.
In 2018, Rhee was awarded the prestigious Korea Arts Foundation of America (KAFA) Award for Visual Art and was previously nominated for Seattle's Stranger Genius Award. Also an accomplished author, his critical writing on art has been published in Art in America, Art Asia Pacific, Arcade, La Norda, and Columbia: A Journal of Arts and Letters, and his blog, Tabletop, was short-listed for an Arts Writers Grant by Creative Capital and the Andy Warhol Foundation.
Rob Rhee, Untitled (Facing in), 2025, Gourd sherds, dowel rods, cap and ring (bottle), wood, epoxy. Photo by Jueqian Fang.
Rob Rhee, Gist Translation: Findings, all senses, and the one about components made from scrap, not scratch., 2025, blown glass, JADAM LIQUID FERTILIZER (JLF 1)(JLF 2), foam, acrylic, wood, gourd seed (silver), wine box. Photo Credit by Jueqian Fang.