Chris Oh

BIO + PRESS

Bio

Chris Oh is a curator and thought-leader responsible for crystalizing many of the social and creative shifts in Miami’s arts, fashion, and counter-cultural movements.

A graffiti writer and artist with an innate talent for harnessing the energy of a neighborhood, before murals emerged as a source of urban beautification for South Florida developers, Oh was motivated by the idea of a platform where creatives from various disciplines could thrive. The Miami Design District, still in its nascent phases, possessed the infrastructural requisites that attracted Oh and his first concept, Culture Kings, to the neighborhood in 2005.

Beyond introducing fashion brands and objets d’art not yet available in the local market, the Culture Kings boutique and art showcase became a catalyst for building a community – a place where artists, curators, designers, and influencers would meet and, eventually, shape the culture-forward identity of the Design District. Y3, Adidas’ high-end fashion brand, and the Culture Kings Artist Collective are among the corporate and social initiatives that Oh brought to the area as an early adopter. Ambra Medda, co-founder of a then-young Design Miami with DACRA developer Craig Robins, mentions Culture Kings as one of her favorite places, describing Oh to Domino Magazine as “a former graffiti artist, [and] brilliant curator of the impossible-to-find.”

With the arrival of Art Basel Miami Beach and the exponential growth of South Florida’s art and design scene, by the late 2000s, Street Art was on the rise as a response to the once-blighted Wynwood District.

The temporality of outdoor murals—“here today, gone tomorrow”—was of special allure to Miami given its own history of transience: it became both an outlet and resource for artists marginalized by fairs, galleries, and the art market. As a graffiti artist, Oh was already poised to collaborate with and, in many ways, facilitate the launch of Primary Flight. The first curated street mural project to lift-off in 2007, this initiative was largely credited for developing the cultural fabric of Wynwood as an international arts destination.

Oh officially partnered with Primary Flight founder, Books Bischof, in 2010 to present the inaugural Primary Projects gallery. The opening of this new Design District space would become a creative incubator for artists and curators, and was for Oh, an opportunity to help give Miami—and many of its previously unseen artists—a voice in the international art community. Attracting the attention of Elle Italy, T Magazine, Associated Press and Cultured, to name a few, Primary Projects tested the boundaries of visual and performance art, while Oh nurtured major regional and international public art initiatives.

In addition to securing a residency in Greensboro, North Carolina, which revamped the overpass of a transit area, during an artist talk at Weatherspoon Art Museum, Oh sought to contextualize how street art and installation can transform “forgotten” spaces into a vehicle for urban development. Oh was also at the helm of Primary Projects’ artist seminal exchange program with Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (CIFO), which sent a prominent Hispanic artist from the U.S. to Cuba to create a mural in the heart of Havana.

While Oh’s entrepreneurial spirit has helped shape Miami’s Design District, Wynwood, and a constellation of artistic communities, it is primarily his intuition and nuanced understanding of the real needs of artists and neighborhoods that have propelled these movements forward.

Media

New York Times - Magazine

CULTURED

DOMINO MagazineELLE DECOR ITALIA

INSIDEOUT COMPLEX

Links

http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/15/the-place-florida-part-one/?_php=true&_type=blogs&scp=1&sq=primary%20flight%20miami%20wall%20street&st=cse&_r=0

http://www.wanderlister.com/post/10940672898/shanamason-chrisoh-primaryprojects#.VE2-mdzfmzA

http://wordintown.com/2011/10/19/familiar-chris-primary-flight-primary-projects/

http://unlike.net/miami/shop/culture-kings

http://www.nbcmiami.com/blogs/niteside/NiteTalk-Primary-Flight--Salons-Up-the-Summer-157314565.html

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2011-09-08/calendar/one-man-s-detritus/full/

http://www.thedailywood.com/interviews/meet-chris-oh/

http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2009/07/spotted_a_couture_commode_at_c.php

http://digital.modernluxury.com/article/The+Radar+++Now/85107/10052/article.html

http://oceandrive.com/living/articles/primary-projects-brings-street-art-indoors

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/b19b946e-1643-11e1-b4b1-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1f1RQeCJ

Books

Design

CULTURE KINGS Miami Design District

OCHO Soho Beach House

Commercial CURATION

Paint

CHRIS OH chrisoh1@me.com

(305) 890-2117

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Chris Oh

Biography + Press