Okja Kwon (b. 1981, Seoul, Korea) is a Korean-born transnational adoptee artist based in Milwaukee, WI. They hold an MS in the Cultural Foundations of Education (2012) and a BFA in Painting & Drawing (2007), and Narrative Print & Forms (2009).

My artistic practice investigates the complex intersections of pre-colonial Korean identity and transnational adoption through the liminal space between oceanic depths and ancestral memory. Drawing upon maritime histories of the Three Kingdoms period, when pearl divers navigated the archipelagic waters between the Korean Peninsula and surrounding seas, I create installations that speak to both severance and metamorphosis.

The oyster becomes a central metaphor in my work, its protective response to foreign bodies mirroring the formation of adoptee identity. Like nacre slowly accumulating around an intrusion, cultural memory builds in non-linear patterns, creating pearls of meaning that defy singular narrative reduction. These crystalline formations echo the ancient trade routes that once connected the Korean Peninsula's coastal kingdoms, now transformed into passages of transnational adoption.

Hanji, Korea's historical handmade paper, interweaves with human hair and honey to create installations that resist transparent interpretation. Hair, sacred in pre-colonial Korean ancestral rites, carries genetic memory even when severed from its source. With its preservative properties, honey speaks to both conservation and transformation—how some aspects of identity persist despite displacement from their original context.

My practice engages with what Glissant terms "submarine roots"—the submerged connections between Korea's maritime past and contemporary adoption passages. Through carefully manipulating these materials, I create environments where viewers encounter the opacity of cultural memory, challenging the reductivist impulse to translate complex identities into singular narratives. This investigation creates spaces where the trembling uncertainty of belonging becomes generative rather than limiting.