KC Ho, “Not Yet Form/D”, Upper Market Gallery
Incomplete, 2026
Oil on canvas
14 x 11 inches
This essay is part of our “Artist on Artist” series.
Each day when I arrive at my studio, as I enter the floor where my unit is, I instinctively look left and listen for the sound of classical music drifting from KC’s studio. His door is almost always open, filling the air with the intoxicating scent of fresh oil paint and inviting any passerby to stop, say hello, and to satisfy the inquiring eye with a look at what he has recently finished or is currently working on. His output is prodigious for a person that has a full-time career. It seems that in a few days’ time, one can witness the completion of multiple paintings. They hang across the 12-foot-high walls, lean in tall stacks against each other, and sit framed in boxes in the corner, ready to be hung. One’s imagination may be visioning a large open expanse, something like a loft, but the reality is approximately 150 square feet, with a small skylight and four white walls. The floor is covered in heavy duty canvas painter’s tarps, emblazoned with the trampled drips and splattered remnants of the finished works. It is here, in approximately an 8 by 10-foot space, that KC stands, in workman’s coveralls, palette in one hand, brush in the other, and commands his orchestra of creative force. To see him without him noticing, his face holds an expression of serious contemplation, but upon noticing you his eyes light up, and a smile emerges as he engages with you in his kind-natured way. To those interested, he is happy to talk about whatever he is working on, and does so in a succinct and effortless way that few artists possess. One feels immediately included in the most intimate of manners, as if the work is being created specifically for you, and he has been waiting to tell you about it.
Quiet Company, 2026
Oil on canvas
14 x 11 inches
This is the profundity of the work encapsulated in “Not Yet Form/D”, the solo exhibition by KC Ho currently on view at Upper Market Gallery. Featuring 22 new paintings, Ho takes the viewer on a journey of continued self-discovery, across the ever-evolving stages of his oeuvre. His deeply expressive paintings have in them a rhythm that is unmistakable and quite cerebral. They exist in a dance between tension and breath. Represented are 4 stages of Ho’s exploration: his portraits, figurative abstractions, pure expressionism, and finally his narrative expressionism. The thread between these works is clear and unflinchingly cohesive.
No Form Holds, 2026
Oil on canvas
60 x 48 inches
“Crimson Chromatic” a smaller portrait executed in a thick impasto that layers the canvas, making it feel as if a battle has taken place. In Ho’s way of repetition, erasure, and reapplication, the face portrayed is more than a simple likeness, it’s both moving and still elucidating both the inward and outward condition of the sitter. I am gifted by the sight of extreme tension, not only in the construction of the work but also in the subject matter itself. A closer look reveals that this is not a narrative about the strife of a man, but rather one of the necessary shedding required in the process of self-discovery — a person in the midst of becoming their true self. It is the cusp of the beauty which is about to be; the butterfly’s first moment as it emerges from the chrysalis.
Crimson Chromatic 14”x11” Oil on canvas 2026
Hung as a selection of many, “Crimson Chromatic” is anchored amongst a smattering of human silhouettes in motion. Most are set on dark mono or dual-chromatic backgrounds. This group of work includes the favorite of my eldest daughter, “Not Forgotten”. A figure in orange seems to approach us, emerging from a deep alizarin portal, framed in a red so dark it is approaching black. While it is seemingly simple in its coloration, the artist’s approach to this clarity in palette is a story of layers. These may be meant to represent those of our lives. As I become engrossed in discovering these I am confronted by the figure; I see it leaving, then coming, and then leaving again, repeating over and over. Its hand painted in white, is it reaching out to me or letting go? I want to both grab ahold of it and wave goodbye. I ask myself, “Is this a person or a ghost?” My daughter has been asking a lot about death as a child her age discovering this inevitable fact is prone to do. Her questions often confound and impress me with each new one: “Are you sad when you die?”, “Will you miss me when you die?”, “Will I miss you when you die?”, are just a few of the deeply inquisitive and perplexing ones I spend days thinking of my response to. In those moments, a need for clarity comes, and in it often the best answer, but those are for her. In “Not Forgotten” Ho appears to give us insight into his perception of the matter. In a conversation with him the day after the opening, he told me this work was in response to the recent loss of his father. That insight naturally gives deeper meaning to the work. I pondered if asked of the figure, “Are you sad when you die?”, would it answer, “Yes” as indicated by the cadmium orange emanating from the body like a soul ablaze on its journey from this world, its white hand left rendered in an obscurity of its intention. “Will you miss me?”, “Yes”, the figure says, as is seen by the revolving nature of its position, fighting its fate while trying to hold on. “Will I miss you?”, “Yes”, it replies, as the world around the figure goes from the red of love, rage, and loss to fading slowly to the black of absence, sadness, and disbelief. But there is hope, a fountain of it, and I am reminded by it that we don’t die, the world ends, and we ascend into the dimension of time and space where our consciousness becomes a shared entity. We are never forgotten.
Not Forgotten, 2026
Oil on canvas
14 x 11 inches
Moving on to my personal favorite of the exhibition, “The Unfolding”, an expressionist painting primarily set in a field of yellow with beautiful blush undertones that slowly become green at the bottom. From underneath cadmium deep yellow pops whipped gold, and atop sit white clouds. All painted in repetitive, near lateral strokes, that move just slightly elevated to the left. Each time I see this piece, I am lifted. It is a breath, carrying me back to my first trip to California when I was nineteen. In an old cigarette burned forest green Buick LeSabre, tumbling up and down the live oak dotted golden hills of the 101 as I traversed south to north. My memory of that trip is one of light – the golden hour seemed to be permanent, eclipsing any specific memories beyond it. A young man with a heart full of dreams, now an older man looking both back and forward, blinded by each direction. This painting is the memory that perpetuated my moving to San Francisco 10 years later, as I chased those dreams only to realize them in the form of my second born daughter, the most beautiful sunlight.
The Unfolding, 2025
Oil on canvas
30 x 24 inches
The title piece of the show, “Not Yet Formed”, is a field of alternating blues and greens centered in a halo of misty white that fades into a beautiful raw sienna edge. This painting is a seminal example of where expressionism becomes narrative. Through the brushwork, figures emerge and recede with a repetition which reads as people walking outdoors, possibly near or in view of a body of water. In this square format I am on a path, meandering amongst the evergreens, walking in a circle with a beginning and end in mind but still looking for an alternate course. In the mist of the fog, I wonder if I am coming out of it, or if it is enveloping me in its enchanting chill. My becoming feels certain but remains unseen or rather “Not Yet Formed”.
Not Yet Formed, 2026
Oil on canvas
36 x 36 inches
Please take the time to see KC’s work in its final weekend at Upper Market Gallery, 4690 18Th Street, San Francisco. A Closing Reception will be held this Friday, June 26th, from 5-9pm with additional hours Saturday and Sunday from 1-5pm. It has been both a pleasure to see these works in the beautiful setting of Upper Market Gallery, and also an honor to watch them come into existence through KC’s dedicated and committed hand in our shared studio space.
