Photo Credits: Everett Taasevigen, Glasstire, 2015.
THEJOOYOUNGCHOICOMPANY@GMAIL.COM
CURRICULUM VITAE (available below, or as a pdf)
PREVIOUS SITE (Active from 2014-2015)
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JooYoung Choi
Artist Statement
Through painting, video, sculpture, animation, puppetry, music, interactive community projects, and installation art, interdisciplinary astro-futurist world builder JooYoung Choi documents the interconnecting narratives of a highly-structured, expansive fictional land called the Cosmic Womb.
Guided by this narrative, Choi explores themes such as anti-racism, gender inclusivity, trans-racial adoptee rights, post-traumatic growth, and spirituality rooted in social justice.
Choi uses her art to promote the teachings of Fred Rogers, and to expose the oppressive nature of “New Thought” also known as the “Law of Attraction”.
Through her interdisciplinary studio process, Choi completes complex and thoughtful projects that merge the autobiographic with the fantastic into a visual form.
Biography
b. 1982/1983
JooYoung Choi, born in Seoul, South Korea, immigrated to Concord, New Hampshire in 1983 by way of adoption. While completing her BFA at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, she returned to South Korea and reunited with her birth family.
Since receiving her MFA from Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Choi’s artwork has been exhibited in such venues as the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR; Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, NY; The Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, TX; Project Row Houses, Houston, TX; The Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience, Seattle, WA; The National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago, IL; The Art Museum of South East Texas, Beaumont, TX; Lawndale Art Center, Houston, TX, the 2021 Texas Biennial and The Crow Museum of Asian Art, Dallas, Texas.
Choi has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Artadia, Idea Fund, Houston Art Alliance, and the Houston Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs. She has also participated in the Lawndale Artist Residency in Houston, TX, and the Harvester Artist Residency in Wichita, KS.
Choi’s work has been featured by numerous media groups and publications, including the PBS Digital Studios Art Assignment, Korean Global News Network YTN, the LA Times, New American Paintings, Arts+Culture Magazine, the Houston Chronicle, Glasstire, Houston’s PaperCity, Nat. Brut, Texas Monthly and the Huffington Post.
About the Cosmic Womb
The Cosmic Womb is a small planet that stretches over approximately 6,732 miles, it is governed by Queen Kiok and council of humanoid creatures called Tuplets, Lady K, Aidee Three, Emo Flowers (No. 36), Kun-Yook Six, Lydia “Nine” Fletcher, Haneul-Sek aka Nina Blue and one Earthling from Concord, NH named C.S. Watson).
The Cosmic Womb is a member of the Veritas Circle an organization present throughout the larger Wonderverse a collection of realities and universes that exist within Choi’s ever growing mythos.
Queen Kiok is aided not only by the Tuplets but also a diverse community of super heroes and organizations including: Spacia Tanno, Plan-Genda, Pleasure Vision, Pound Cake Man, Spectra Force Vive - Infinite Pie Delivery Service, and The Liberated Black Heavenly Bodies Alliance.
Featured Articles and Interviews with the Artist
Houston Chronicle, “Art Leads to Many Discoveries for JooYoung Choi”, by Molly Glenzer, 2015
Arts+Culture Texas, “The Intoxicating Artistic Vision of JooYoung Choi”, by Michal McFadden, 2015
Houston Citybook, “Cosmic Calling”, by Chris Becker
Just Vibe Houston. “JooYoung Choi and Her World at Project Row Houses”, by Dana Robinson, 2017
Free Press Houston. “A World of Her Own: An Interview with JooYoung Choi” by Paul Middendorf, 2017
Video Credit: Sky Richards, learn more at www.skysrectangle.com
JooYoung Choi
b. 1982/1983
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2022
Songs of Resilience from the Tapestry of Faith, The Crow Museum of Asian Art, Dallas, TX
2021
Spectra Force Vive: Infinite Pie Delivery Service, Film Project Premiere, Aurora Picture Show, Houston, TX
2019
Big Time Dreaming in the Age of Uncertainty, Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Beaumont, TX
2018
Perennial Favorites, Big Time Believer and the Garden of Courage and Love, Harvester Arts, Wichita, KS
2017
Somnioplexic Resonance, solo installation in conjunction with A Better Yesterday, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Houston, TX
2016
Paracosmic Alchemy, Anya Tish Gallery, Houston, TX
Have Faith for You Have Always Been Loved, solo installation within Round 45: Local Impact, Project Row Houses, Houston, TX
2015
A Strange Paradise, Front Gallery, Houston, TX C.S. Watson and the Cosmic Womb, Brazos Gallery, Richland College, Dallas, TX
2011
(Choi Show), International Korean Adoptee Art and Film Festival, Seoul, South Korea
2010
Speaking the Unspoken, East Meets West, Cambridge, MA Parker Hill Library Exhibition, Roxbury, MA
2009
For Ae Ran Won, Ko-Root, Seoul, South Korea
2008
Artdoptee, Somerville Library, Somerville, MA
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2021
Texas Biennial: A New Landscape, A Possible Horizon, McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX
2020
State of the Art 2020, Crystal Bridges, Bentonville, AR
2019
Open World: Video Games & Contemporary Art, Akron Art Museum, Akron, OH
2018
A Time Before We Were Born: Visions of Arcadia in Contemporary Painting, Sylvia Wald & Po Kim Art Gallery, New York, NY
From Pangs to Pangolins, Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles, CA
2017
Picture Show of the Mind: A Tribute to the Teachings of Lee Baxter Davis, Meadows Museum of Art, Shreveport, LA
2016
Reverberations, Stella Elkins Gallery, Tyler University, Philadelphia, PA
Double Digits: Lawndale’s Artist Studio Program, Lawndale Art Center, Houston, TX
2015
ABCD, Lawndale Artist Studio Program Exhibition, Lawndale Art Center, Houston, TX
The House on Mango Street, National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago, IL
Parliament of Owls, DiverseWorks, Houston, TX
2014
Eco Myths, LAST Project Space, West Hollywood, CA
Urban Art: Expressions of an Environment, FCA Council Gallery, Fayetteville, NC
Raw Paw: Keeping Dreamtime, Museum of Human Achievement, Austin, TX
The Big Show, Lawndale Art Center, Houston,TX
2013
Third Coast National, K Space Contemporary, Corpus Christi, TX
The Big Show, Lawndale Art Center, Houston, TX
2012
AIB MFA in Visual Arts Graduate Exhibition, Boston, MA
2011
BORN INTO IDENTITY: The Asian Pacific American Adoptees Experience, Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience, Seattle, WA
TJX Asian/Pacific Islander American Heritage Month, TJX Head Quarters, Framingham, MA
2010
TJX Asian/Pacific Islander American Heritage Month, Framingham, MA
2008
Calvin Burnett Exhibit, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston, MA
2006
Speaking Truth to Power, Edna Stebbins Art Gallery, Cambridge, MA
International Women’s Day Celebration, La Rivolta at CCB, Boston, MA
2004
Bunker Hill Community College, Boston, MA
SELECTED AWARDS & GRANTS
2019
National Endowment for the Arts, Challenge America Grant Recipient
The Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs and Houston Art Alliance Support for Artist and Creative Individuals Grant, Houston, TX
The Idea Fund Stimulus Grant, endowed by the Andy Warhol Foundation, Houston, TX
2015
Artadia Award, Artadia Fund for Art and Dialogue, New York City, NY
The Idea Fund Grant, endowed by the Andy Warhol Foundation, Houston, TX
2009
UUFP Stanfield Artist Award, Boston, MA
2008
UUFP Stanfield Artist Award, Boston, MA
2007
UUFP Stanfield Artist Award, Boston, MA
Inter-Adoptee Scholarship
Somerville Arts Council LCC Cultural Heritage Grant, Somerville, MA
PUBLICATIONS
2020
You Are an Artist - Assignments to Spark Creation, written by Sarah Urist Green
2017
A Better Yesterday. “The Value of Imaginary Friends: Lessons from JooYoung Choi”, edited by Betsy Stepina Zinn
2016
New American Paintings, West Edition, No. 126
2015
Exu, Volume 1, Published by Robert Boyd
2014
The Adoption Constellation. “Fearing the Adult Adoptee”, by Jae Ran Kim (Art Work Featured)
2013
Gardening Secrets of the Dead by Lee Herrick (Cover)
2012
Kartika Review Fall Issue (Cover)
Outsiders Within, Korean Translation (Cover)
2010
Waxen Wings. (Cover)
2009 .
Asian American Poetry and Writing – “New Truths” (Cover)