Koak creates emotionally charged portraits that draw on the visual vocabulary of comics. The effortless beauty of her work is the product of an exquisite technique and master craftsmanship. Koak gives her female figures their own agency, challenging cultural definitions of women as passive objects of desire.

BIO:

Koak was born in 1981 and holds an MFA in Comics and an individualized BFA from the California College of the Arts. 

Koak’s work has been shown in numerous solo exhibitions, including: Return to Feeling at Altman Siegel in San Francisco, California; Holding Breath at Union Pacific in London, UK; Breaking the Prairie at Ghebaly Gallery in Los Angeles, California; Seed for Planting at Walden in Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Bathers at Alter Space in San Francisco, California. 

Koak’s work has also been shown in many group exhibitions, including: 100 Drawings From Now at The Drawing Center in New York; Palo Santo at Ratio 3 in San Francisco, California; Liquid Dreams at Ghebaly Gallery in Los Angeles, California; American Fine Arts by BBQLA at Cloaca in San Francisco, California; You Are Who I Think You Are at American Medium in New York; and Female Gaze at the Museum of Sex in New York. 

Koak lives and works in San Francisco.