Se Young Au (b. 1984, Seoul) is an artist who lives and works in Los Angeles.

They are a multi-disciplinary artist and writer who received their BA in photography from Columbia College Chicago. Their work is at the intersection of digital collage, personal archive, installation, and olfaction. Au has exhibited in Seattle at the Henry Art Gallery, AHL Foundation in New York City, El Segundo Museum of Art, The Institute of Art and Olfaction, Craft Contemporary Museum, and RIP Space in Los Angeles. Au was recently a recipient of an Emergency Fund Grant from the Foundation of Contemporary Art. They have been a guest artist lecturer at Cornell University and the University of California at Irvine. In 2023, they co-founded Errare, a sensory spatial design studio with their creative partner, Kaitlyn Darby. Additionally, Au writes a quarterly dispatch, Transmissions, which explores olfaction as a tool for transmuting grief.

As an artistic practice, Au strives to conceive works from a place where loss is subverted into the creation of alternative worlds and how we survive the brutality of intersecting systems. Their aim is to regain agency over their personal mythology, and to assert themsevles as fully embodied; a reclamation of spirit that defies space and time.

Throughout their work, they are committed to multi-disciplinary language imbued with agility that can navigate between the pervasiveness of loss and the sublimity of evoking the natural world. The redirection of grief held in the body takes form as saturated beauty held in suspension, in itself an act of radical defiance, to hold and uplift hope.

Se Young Au - Curriculum Vitae

Biographical 

                b. 1984   Seoul, South Korea

Education

2020                    SMC | visual arts: continuing education |  Santa Monica, CA

2017-present      Institute of Art and Olfaction   | scent certification  |  Los Angeles, CA

2004-2005          Antonio de Nebrija  |  study abroad  | Madrid, Spain

2002-2007          Columbia College Chicago |  Bachelor of Arts  |  Photography  |  Chicago, IL

Guest Artist/Educator

2024                     University of California at Irvine | Irvine, CA

2024 RISD (invited) | Providence, RI

2023 Carlow University | Pittsburgh, PA 

2023 Cornell University: East Asian symposium, artist/guest lecturer  | Ithaca, NY

2022                      HOLA (Heart of Los Angeles) | Los Angeles, CA

Solo Exhibition

2023               Institute of Art and Olfaction | A Clearing | Los Angeles, CA 

Select Group Exhibitions

2025*             RIP Space | The Shape of Time | Los Angeles, CA 

2025                    Craft Contemporary Museum | Ether | Los Angeles, CA 

2025                    UC Irvine | (Un)natural Confluences | Irvine, CA

2025                    LA County Public Art |  Reflections  | Los Angeles, CA (forthcoming)

2024             Space Mirage | WaladaKan Good, Ssalon | Seoul, South Korea 

2024             PSLA | WaladaKan Good, Ssalon | Los Angeles, CA 

2022             AHL Foundation | Sensoria |  New York, NY 

2022             LA Artcore |  Dear Mother,  | Los Angeles, CA

2022             Luna Anaïs Gallery at D2  |  Radical Dawn |  Los Angeles, CA 

2021             El Segundo Museum of Art  |  blue/s  |  El Segundo, CA

2020             Henry Art Gallery  |  Set in Motion |  Seattle, WA

2015             A+D Gallery  |  Classical Mechanics   |  Chicago, IL

2014                    Benefit for Mutual Aid  |  Auction |  Brooklyn, NY

2012                    Societe Alexandra Sens  | Treadwash  |  Paris, France

2011                    Wandering Bears  | Sunnyside Up |  Margate, UK

2010             First Eyes Festival |  Chain Letter  |  Paris, France

2010                    Chicago: Next |  Proximity |  Chicago, IL  

2010                    Zhou B Center |  Territories  |  Chicago, IL

2009                    Version/ Co-Prosperity Sphere  |  Silent Auction |  Chicago, IL

2007                    Raw Space   |  Manifest- BFA Show   |  Chicago, IL

Published essays/ interviews

2024                    Dialogues | Interview with Clifford Prince King | Foundwork 

2024                    Transmissions | The Ways in Which to Reach You | Varyer

2023             Transmissions | Scenting the Multiverse | Varyer

2022             Transmissions | Shapes of Perception |  Varyer

              Transmissions | Seeds of Transference | Varyer 

2021                    Transmissions | Volume 1 | Varyer 

Selected Press

2023             Noodle | Issue 4 | Interview with Kenneth Ng 

2023                    The Art Direction Show | Artist Interview

2022                    New York Times  |  Can Scent Be Democratized?   | by Betty Hallock

2021                    El Segundo Museum of Art | Artist Interview

Distinctions

2025             Recipient of Emergency Fund Grant | Foundation of Contemporary Arts

2023                    Fountainhead Residency nominee 

2022             Fountainhead Residency nominee 

*in collaboration with Errare Studio