JOOYOUNG CHOI (b. 1982/1983, Seoul, South Korea) immigrated to Concord, New Hampshire, in 1982 by way of adoption. While completing her Bachelor of Fine Arts at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, she returned to South Korea and reunited with her birth family.
Since receiving her Master of Fine Arts from Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Choi’s artwork has exhibited in such venues as 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; and 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.
Choi lives and works in Houston, TX.
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.
