“Wook-kyung Choi” Installation view at Kukje Gallery Hanok ©Kukje GalleryKukje Gallery presents “Wook-kyung Choi”, a solo exhibition by artist Wook-kyung Choi (b. 1940-1985), through March 3 at the gallery’s newly renovated hanok.
Best known for her expressionist use of bold brushstrokes and vivid colors, Choi began developing her unique grammar of abstraction during her early years of studying abroad in the United States. This exhibition is a presentation of a selection of 21 works comprising works on paper and black-and-white ink drawings previously shown in “A Stranger to Strangers”, the artist’s solo exhibition at Kukje Gallery Busan in August 2023.
The fragments of the artist’s thoughts that filled her daily life while studying abroad, her various mediums experiments and practices, and her establishment of her own unique artistic language can once again be seen in the hanok space of Kukje Gallery Seoul.
Wook-kyung Choi graduated from Seoul Arts High School in 1959 and the College of Fine Arts at Seoul National University in 1963. Choi then moved to the United States where she continued to pursue her studies at Cranbrook Academy of Art and Brooklyn Museum Art School.After receiving her degrees, she was offered a position as an Assistant Professor at Franklin Pierce University from 1968 to 1971. Upon returning to Korea in 1978, Choi became an Associate Professor in the Painting Department at Yeungnam University and went on to become a Professor in the Western Painting Department at Duksung Women’s University in 1984, devotingherself to mentoring subsequent generations of artists along with developing her own practice.
Wook-kyung Choi held solo exhibitions at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwacheon (2021, 1987); the American Center Korea, Seoul (1978); Roswell Art Museum and Art Center, New Mexico (1977); Upstairs Gallery, Winnipeg (1974); Shinsegae Gallery, Seoul (1971); Cornell University, New York (1965), among others.
She also participated in important group exhibitions at Fondation Vincent Van Gogh, Arles (2023) and Whitechapel Gallery, London (2023); Sharjah Biennial 15 (2023); Centre Pompidou, Paris(2021); Cranbrook Museum, Michigan (2021); Bilbao Guggenheim (2021); Seoul Museum of Art(2018); Seoul National University Museum of Art (2016, 2004); Brooklyn Museum, New York (1981); the 16th São Paulo Biennale (1981); and the annual Invitational Exhibition in New Yorksponsored by the Skowhegan School Foundation (1967-1968).
She received third place at the 8th Paris Biennale Competition in 1972. Her works are housed in the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwacheon; Leeum Museum of Art, Seoul; the Guggenheim, New York; the Pompidou Center, Paris; and Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, New York.
