Coco Ma & Jeenho Seo: F = mg

In F = mg, artists Coco Ma and Jeenho Seo tackle the question: how does one objectify gravity in sculptural form? And – taking Simone Weil’s essay “Gravity and Grace” as a loose framework – what is the relationship between physical gravity and an inner emotional, moral gravity? Modernist sculptors from Brancusi to Richard Serra have long been interested in gravity as it relates to the physical integrity of a sculpture: were sculptures to fall or collapse from their precarious or suspended states, they would revert to being raw material, for their sculptural logic would collapse with them. Around the same time, mathematician and philosopher Simone Weil was attempting to work out a kind of spiritual physics: she believed that the inner life was governed by laws of moral gravity as absolute as laws of natural gravity. For Weil, we are constantly fighting against the natural downward inclination of our souls. And the soul’s gravitational force also explains why we seek revenge or any kind of equilibrium, or why we feel repelled when someone ‘needs’ us too much.

For his sculpture Response (2026), Seo wanted to find a way to formally visualize gravitational force in a fluid state. He created a wooden structure through which he could suspend materials and invite a counter-force (in this case, a floor fan) from underneath. He suspended wet paper pulp above the fan, which dried into its final form and which he then coated with clear epoxy. By controlling the fan speed, he was able to use materials like fabric and paper pulp to make casts – exhibited here – of the in-between movements of the two invisible forces of gravity and anti-gravity.

Ma’s Adaptive Installation System, Element 1 (2026) features a group of objects that are readapted to the specifics of the space every time they are exhibited. She created the sculptures by gripping wet plaster directly in her hands, twisting and squeezing it into different shapes. While the plaster cured in her hands, she would grasp different kinds of daily debris: dried flowers, branches from parks, yarn leftover from other projects. Each sculpture is suspended so that it settles into something pending, yet not quite frozen in time.

Jeenho Seo is a New York-based Korean artist and an interdisciplinary artist who examines how lived experiences and intangible emotions can be translated into physical forms. Seo often utilizes everyday objects, such as clothing, as foundational materials, integrating them with raw matter to leverage their distinct physical properties and behaviors. Through destructive and transformative processes––including shredding, bleaching, and casting––Seo converts psychological responses to pressure, tension, and grief into visceral bodily forms. He received an MFA in Sculpture from the Yale School of Art and a BFA in East Asian Painting and Sculpture from Hongik University. His work has been exhibited internationally in New York and Seoul, at venues including Space ZeroOne, Underdonk, and Subtitled NYC. His practice also extends to non-traditional and provisional settings––such as construction sites (Pangyo 621, Korea), open fields, and public parks––where instability, environmental exposure, and context become active, driving elements of the work. His research and practice have been supported by the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture.

Coco Ma is a New York-based Chinese artist working in mixed-media installation, sculpture, and mark-making. She builds her work from daily debris and the small residues of routine which she uses to anchor larger bodily and architectural forms. Her practice occupies the distance between her childhood in Beijing and her adult life in New York. Ma received an MFA in Studio Art from Hunter College and a BA in Studio Art and Philosophy from Bard College. Her work has been shown in group exhibitions at Under the Pale Blue Gallery, Deli Grocery Gallery, Chashama, Local Project Art Space, among others. She presented her MFA thesis exhibition, Brackish Water, at 205 Hudson Gallery in 2026, and a two-person exhibition, Playdemonium, at the Arts Center in Corvallis, Oregon. She has held residencies at the Curatorial Program for Research and Arts Letters & Numbers.

Curated by Emily Chun.