Sohyung Choi

BIO

Sohyung Choi is a native of Seoul, South Korea. After working as a textile designer for 5 years, she immigrated to the United States in 1996 to study Fine Art. Choi attended Cosumnes River College in Sacramento and started to focus on her artistic career. After earning an AA degree, she enrolled into the University of California, Davis, and received a B.A. in studio art. Choi continued her studies at California State University, Sacramento taking several semesters of graduate level studio classes until 2009, and in 2011, she earned her M.F.A. from Mills College in Oakland, winning the Headlands Center for the Arts Graduate Fellowship Award. Choi is now awarded the Affiliate Program at the Headlands Center for the Arts.

ARTIST STATEMENT

I question the time and space of one’s existence through found objects and the photographic image. Both serve as records of time: of how innumerable histories and memories have already passed and been forgotten, but remain inside us. In much of my work, I reconfigure discarded materials, things that are often viewed with a degree of sadness and poignancy as they have been abandoned and obsolete. I photograph the objects as if in a sketchbook but also I’m interested in the poetic nature of loss as it relates to our identities.

I primarily make installations and video with found objects. I find my materials in flea markets, garage sales, thrift stores, dumpsters, and sometimes on the street. I solicit donations, perhaps ending up with things dug from a dark corner of one’s closet. Using not only the discarded objects but also photographs of the objects, I reframe the images to create an evolving, multi-layered imagery that is filled with chance juxtapositions and unexpected visual poetry, which create disclosure of our identity but also broader cultural identities.

It is my hope, that the commonality of experience and one’s identity in globalized compound culture will be realized by the viewer. In encountering my work, I hope our community will consider its own faded histories, the unseen influences on its identity and the transitory nature of life.

CV

EDUCATION

2011                MFA, Mills College, Oakland, CA
2009                Studio Art Graduate Courses, Sacramento State University, CA
2004                BA, University of California at Davis, CA
2002                AA, Cosumnes River College, Sacramento, CA

SOLO EXHIBITION

2009                Unseen Echoes, Robert Else Gallery, Sacramento, CA

SCREENINGS

2011               The 8th End Of The Pier International Film Festival 2011, West Sussex, UK
                       13th Annual California Independent Film Festival, Moraga, CA
                        The 2011 Oxford Film Festival, Oxford, MS

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2012     The Art of Photography Show 2012, San Diego Art Institute, San Diego, CA
             Matcha: Mago, Collaboration with Dohee Lee, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, CA
             Bay Area Women Artists, O'Hanlon Center for the Arts, Mill Valley, CA
             Figures & Faces, Pacific Art League, Palo Alto, CA
             New Media Festival L.A., Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, Los Angeles, CA
             5th Annual Summer Juried Show, Sylvia White Gallery, Ventura, CA
             Tell the truth and run!, Headlands Center for the Art, Sausalito, CA

2011      Portraits, Vessel Gallery, Oakland, CA
              Walking Backwards Forward, The Thesis Exhibition, Mills College Art Museum, Oakland, CA

2010      One Night Stand, Branch Gallery, Oakland, CA

2009      stimulus package, Blankspace Gallery, Oakland, CA
              Master of Art Candidate Show, Library Annex Gallery, CA State University, Sacramento, CA
              Master of Art Candidate Show, Witt Gallery, CA State University, Sacramento, CA
            Play Time: Historical Toys and Contemporary Art, Sacramento International Airport, Terminal B, Sacramento,  CA

2008     Capital Artists’ Studio Tour Exhibition, SMUD Art Gallery, Center for Contemporary Art, Sacramento, CA
             Capital Artists’ Studio Tour Exhibition, 1818 L St., Center for Contemporary Art, Sacramento, CA
             GASA Auction! Show and Sale, Robert Else Gallery, Sacramento, CA

2005     Wild Women 3: Lost & Found, Fetterly Gallery, Vallejo, CA
             150x150, Arsenal 17, Benicia, CA

2004      Pretentious, Arsenal 17, Benicia, CA
              More Bigger, UC Davis Basement Gallery, Davis, CA

1992      The 3rd Korea Textile Design Exhibition, Korean Exhibition Center, Seoul, Korea

AWARDS

2012-2013      Affiliate Award, Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA
2011-2012      Graduate Fellowship Award, Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA
                        Herringer Family Foundation Award, Mills College, Oakland, CA
2010                Herringer Family Foundation Award, Mills College, Oakland, CA
1999                Kingsley Art Scholarship Award, Kingsley Art Club, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA
1998                Art Student of the Year Scholarship Award, Cosumnes River College, Sacramento, CA