Sag Harbor Couple Paints 'Visualized Music'

Sag Harbor artistic duo Yong Jo Ji and Anna Atanasova met while dancing at a rave in Chicago. The couple has since moved far from the rave scene, but the work they create and their philosophy of life continues to be deeply rooted in the house and electronic music that brought them together.

“It’s about love, it’s about peace, it’s about people vibing together in a good way,” Atanasova said, describing house music and the paintings she and her husband create. “The acrylic paintings are like visualized music, like how [Wassily] Kandinsky painted classical music,” Jo Ji added, noting that the layers of beats and sounds in electronic and house music build to create a harmony. “There’s a repetition sometimes, just like some of the beats are repeating,” Atanasova said, pointing to one of the dozens of paintings stacked along the walls of their comfortable living room.

The work Jo Ji and Atanasova paint together is deeply layered with color and abstract shapes and patterns, many of them repeating, like the beats that inspire them. The pair applies a monoprinting technique, using cardboard shapes and all kinds of household items to create the recurring marks on their large canvases. The compositions are made whole with gestural strokes and haphazard drips.

“All of our paintings have an element of chance,” Jo Ji, a native of South Korea said, referencing Jackson Pollock, who denied making any accidental marks in his work. “It’s not a conventional way of painting,” he said. Atanasova said she and Jo Ji are as creative as possible with their application of paint. “Whatever leaves a good print there, I’ll use it,” she said.

The couple began working on art together almost immediately after they met in 2005, but it wasn’t until they moved to the East End that the pair really began creating a serious body of work and showing frequently. When they first tried painting together in Jo Ji’s Chicago studio, he was already fairly accomplished and educated as a painter, and Atanasova had studied visual arts and advertising in her home country of Bulgaria, but they grew tremendously as a pair.

“If you share your art, you’re sharing everything,” Atanasova said, noting that these days, she and Jo Ji are together literally every hour of every day. The two share ideas and neither of them have a specific role in the studio. “It’s kind of like a dance,” Atanasova said.

Jo Ji said he and his wife squabble like any married couple, but they never fight over their art. Both he and Atanasova check their egos at the studio door. “Work always comes first,” Jo Ji said, explaining that painting is their livelihood, and nothing can get in the way of that.

Jo Ji had a strong resume as an individual painter in the Midwest, and he and Atanasova’s very first show at DeGraaf Fine Art in Saugatuck, Michigan, completely sold out, but they had to start from scratch after moving to New York. Fortunately, the pair hit the East End by storm and quickly began showing at numerous local galleries.

Today, Jo Ji continues to paint and show his encaustic work individually, something he’s been doing for 10 years, and Atanasova has a love for collage, but their primary focus is working as a couple.

Yong Jo Ji and Anna Atanasova’s paintings can be seen at the in Water Mill, as well as galleries in Michigan, Wisconsin and Arizona. For more details, images, a complete biography and gallery information, visit www.YongJoJi-Atanasova.com