Growing up in a dilapidated town full of architectural genius, and often traveling to South Korea at a young age to visit my mother’s family, my memories offer up a beautiful clash of opposites. Living through the chaos of the 90s and experiencing pop culture through the lens of two different worlds, I find ways to embrace that turbulence and integrate contrasts into my work, evoking thought and question, tugging at the viewer to experience something odd. I am in pursuit of what makes a thing truly memorable, attempting to forge confusion into beauty.
—Justin Paik Reese
Justin Reese has a BFA from Columbus College of Art and Design in Columbus, Ohio. His passions and inspirations involve 90s pop culture, retro video game collections, old school sports figures, and architecture, all of which serve to inspire his current work. He currently lives in Youngstown, Ohio, where he has a family and personal studio. Justin fires his work to cone 10/11 in soda-fired reduction inside of a downdraft kiln that he built in 2017.