Jinhan Ko

Biography

Instant Coffee is a service oriented curatorial and artist collective based in Toronto and Vancouver. Instant Coffee developed, in part, as a response to the division and exaggerated difference between studio and exhibition practice. Through formal installations and event-based activities, it builds a public place to practice, where ideas, materials and actions can be explored outside of the isolated studio and in a manner that renegotiates traditional exhibition structures, but is still supported by them.

Instant Coffee has an extensive art practice, spanning over ten years. As an artist collective they have been invested in combining the social with the aesthetic, and as such have worked in public spaces to engage large audiences. They have shown internationally and have exhibited in many prominent art institutions as well has produced numerous Public Art projects. Currently Instant Coffee recently produced a sculptural wall mural for the City of Edmonton and created a colourful environment for the Southhill Community in Vancouver. As part of the City of Vancouver’s Cultural Olympic programme, the Collective opened Light Bar a full-spectrum light bar installation and venue for light therapy, light lectures, light shows, light reading and light rock. In 2009 Instant Coffee exhibited the Disco Fallout Shelter, at the Toronto Sculpture Garden, and as part of Subvision, Hamburg; Nooks as part of How Soon is Now, Vancouver Art Gallery; Light Bar as part of Assume Nothing, New Social Practice, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria; Bright Future as part of 88 Blocks Art on Main a Public Art Commission by Translink and Come In: Disco Fallout Shelter as part of LIVE 2009, Vancouver and Instant Coffee, Sølyst, Denmark. Other recent residencies and exhibitions include Light Bar Research and Residency, Hotel Maria Kapel, The Netherlands, Kuenstlerhaeuser Worpswede, Germany, Flaggfabrikken Kunsthall, Bergen, Norway; If You Lived Here You’d Be Home By Now, Henry Art Gallery, Seattle; Wish You Were Here, Casa del Encuentro MDE07 encuentro internacional, Medellin, Colombia. Instant Coffee's most consistent members are Jinhan Ko, Kelly Lycan, Khan Lee Jenifer Papararo, Cecilia Berkovic and Kate Monro.