Kyoung Ae Cho is engaged in a conversation with nature. Nature, she asserts, has been conducting experiments into processes and metamorphosing natural materials for millions of years. But because Cho wants to explore nature’s rhythm in our culture and our interaction with nature, her natural world encompasses civilization and technologies – the full array of human interventions – and her fascination with recycling extends to man-made material.
She has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Lillian Elliott Award, the Quilt National Award of Excellence and the Pollock-Krasner Grant, the UWM Foundation and Graduate School Research Award, and Wisconsin Arts Board Award Fellowship.
Cho’s work has been exhibited in national and international venues including Lynden Sculpture Garden, Milwaukee, WI; North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC; Gregg Museum of Art and Design, Raleigh, NC; Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln, NE; Morris Museum, Morristown, NJ; San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, San Jose, CA; Reading Public Museum, Reading, PA; Cheongju Craft Museum, Cheongju, South Korea; Tweed Museum of Art, Duluth, MN; Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, CO; John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI; National Museum of History, Taipei, Taiwan; The Gallery at Montalvo, Saratoga, CA; University of Hawaii Art Gallery, Honolulu; Madison Art Center, WI; Textilemuseum, Tilburg, The Netherlands; Wisconsin Academy, Madison, WI; Reed Whipple Cultural Center Gallery, Las Vegas, NV; South Band Regional Museum of Art, IL; Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO; Snyderman Gallery, Philadelphia, PA; Sheehan Gallery, Walla Walla, WA; Dairy Barn Arts Center, Athens, OH; Detroit Institute of Arts, MI; Evanston Art Center, IL; Carnegie Art Museum of Oxnard, CA; National Museum of Modern Art, Kwachon, Korea.
Nature has been conducting continuous experiments into processes, and has been doing it for millions of years. The environment has been metamorphosing its materials, to form new existence, in an ever-changing society. My investigation into environmental processing is to explore an understanding of nature’s rhythm in our culture and how we as people interact with it as well. Everyday we hear of tragedies that happen upon our earth and these tragedies bring forth the loss of living elements. With growing concern in environmental issues, the understanding of nature’s rhythm and the recycling of materials have become more important and this has peaked my thoughts in how I work. I respectfully approach this environmental processing by incorporating recycled matter as well as low-valued materials mostly which I have gathered. Gathering and collecting objects / materials are very important parts of my work process. Because I believe my works are the outcome of the collaboration between those objects / materials and I, and that collaboration starts from that moment. In the process I examine nature to understand its language through shape, pattern, color, texture, scale and its changes. My works are produced as a result of conversation between nature and I. Through this process, I want to have my work carry the beauty and the power that I see and feel in nature.
- MFA, Fibers, Cranbrook Academy of Art
- BFA, Textile Design, Duksung Women’s University, Seoul, South Korea
Area Head, Fibers Professor, Fibers UW Milwaukee uwm.edu
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