Chunghi Choo

A pioneer and innovator in the field of metalwork, Chunghi Choo has created a legacy through her exquisite craftsmanship and exploration of new techniques in metal and mixed media. Her art goes far beyond the traditional boundaries associated with the medium of metal. The fluidity and organic beauty of her forms seem to undulate and twist in motion, belying the material from which they were made. The functional forms such as teapots have an exceptional lightness and sense of grace from their spout to their handles and her abstract sculpture examines how an artist can go beyond the properties of their chosen medium. Choo is a prolific artist, using these inventive techniques to push herself further and to attain the desired form that she envisioned. Asian calligraphy has often inspired this fluidity, balance, and grace found in her art, along with innovation. Choo was born in Korea and was exposed to art and classical music from a young age. She attended Ewha Women’s University in Seoul, Korea and obtained her B.F.A. Choo came to the United States in 1961 for graduate school, receiving her M.F.A. from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, one of the most prestigious schools for craft in the country. She began teaching at the University of Northern Iowa in 1965, spending three years developing her use of mixed media, and in 1968 came to the University of Iowa to develop the metalsmithing and jewelry program. Choo is presently the F. Wendell Miller Distinguished Professor Emerita at the University of Iowa and she spent the last 46 years not only creating her own art, but teaching students who have gone on to become well respected and significant artists in their own right. Her art is represented in numerous noteworthy American museum collections including MoMA, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, and many more. She has also received and NEA Fellowship in Metalwork and was invited to leave her papers and be interviewed for the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Art. Choo has lectured and taught at other prestigious craft institutions such as Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Maine. Chunghi Choo has been both a significant artist and generous teacher throughout her career, teaching for 50 years in the United States. While she pursued her own artistic goals, she also helped to mold and inspire many young artists in Iowa and continues to create art that goes beyond the traditions of her medium and pushes forward the future of craft.