Soey Milk: Fresh Milk

August 5–26, 2024

Ryan Graff Contemporary is delighted to present Fresh Milk, featuring a unique series of works to celebrate the launch of her new book!

Milk’s creative process is deeply introspective, and the body of her work serves as a veritable chronicle of her personal journey, a visual artifact of her life’s timeline. Through a deft blending of traditional and contemporary techniques, Milk strives to create a singular visual language that reflects the complexities of the human experience, and the singular power of the feminine form.

Fresh Milk presents a refreshing break and departure from Milk’s more weighty concerns that are caught up in her more observational and naturalistic yet playful works—with her ink and water pieces, Milk is able to let go of any self-consciousness of context or concept and run freely and rampantly in the playground.

Fresh Milk features 12 new works, expanding upon the book with elaborately embellished gicleés adorned with a variety of metallic and glitter finishes and other media. Each piece is offered as an edition of one/one.

Soey Milk has established herself as an impressive and compelling figure in contemporary figurative painting. Born in 1989 in Seoul, Korea, Milk moved to Los Angeles at age 11. She earned her BFA from The Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA.
Her sensitive, sensual and delicate hand, and with a keen eye for the emotive use of form, has gained her a notable number of fans and followers of her work in just a short handful of years.
Soey Milk's oeuvre is characterized by a robust amalgamation of traditional oil painting techniques, with a pronounced predilection towards representational and abstract forms of art, deeply ingrained in the tenets of academic painting. Her works predominantly showcase the female form in semi-clothed, serene, and intimate settings, imbued with a profound sense of vulnerability while simultaneously celebrating the innate beauty and fortitude of the female physique. 
Milk has exhibited her work nationally and internationally and is currently represented by EVOKE Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM and Corey Helford Gallery, Los Angeles, CA. She also teaches as part of the Mentor/MFA Program at The Laguna College of Art and Design, Laguna Beach, CA. This is Milk’s first solo with Ryan Graff Contemporary.