On view February 12 - September 4, 2022 at the Crow Museum of Asian Art

This exhibition is traveling to the Contemporary at Blue Star, San Antonio, from February 3 to May 7, 2023. (Learn more here)

The Crow Museum of Asian Art of The University of Texas at Dallas is pleased to present a focused multi-year exhibition series dedicated to making visible the work of Texas-based contemporary Asian women artists. The artists presented in this program focus on contemporary issues both in Texas and abroad, giving voice to complex, humanized stories of identity, place, tradition and modernity.  

Through painting, video, sculpture, animation, music and installation art, multidisciplinary world builder JooYoung Choi documents the interconnecting narratives of a highly-structured, expansive, fictional land she has created and titled the Cosmic Womb. In her work, she explores issues of identity, belonging, trauma and resilience through the sci-fi/fantasy genre, inspired by the media of her childhood and her ongoing research on identity and the media representation of girls, women, intersex, transgender and non-binary people of color. 

This exhibition introduces the Cosmic Womb multiverse and highlights some of its key characters and narratives. In creating a world that explores loss, healing and growth based upon a connective web of belief and faith in oneself, Choi expresses human resiliency and the strength that can be found through the power of storytelling.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

JooYoung Choi is a Houston-based multidisciplinary artist whose paintings, videos, sculptures, animations, music, and installations merge the autobiographical with the fantastical. She was born in Seoul, South Korea, and immigrated to Concord, New Hampshire in 1983 by way of adoption. She has a BFA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design and an MFA from Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Choi’s artwork has been exhibited in such venues as Crystal Bridges; Akron Art Museum; The Contemporary Arts Museum Houston; Project Row Houses; The Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience, Seattle; The Currier Museum of Art, NH; The National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago; The Art Museum of South East Texas, Beaumont; and Lawndale Art Center, Houston. Choi has received grants from Artadia, The National Endowment for the Arts, and the Idea Fund, and has 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, Los Angeles Times, New American Paintings, Arts+Culture magazine, Houston Chronicle, Glasstire, PaperCity Houston, Nat. Brut and the Huffington Post.

This exhibition is the third and final exhibition of the Crow Museum’s Texas Asian Women Artists Series.

JooYoung Choi: Songs of Resilience from the Tapestry of Faith is organized by the Crow Museum of Asian Art and curated by Jacqueline Chao.

Exhibition-Related Press:

Ashley Allen, “The Whimsical World of JooYoung Choi,” Glasstire, April 25, 2023 (Read here)

Jerome Weeks, “An Alternate Universe Comes to the Crow Collection of Asian Art”, Texas Standard from KERA, March 8, 2022 (Read here)

Jane Wu, “Houston Artist JooYoung Choi Takes Audiences on a Fantastical Trip to the Cosmic Womb at the Crow Museum of Asian Art in Dallas”, Texas Highways, February 24, 2022 (Read here)

William Sarradet, “Holding Vessels: Recent Exhibitions in Texas”, Glasstire, April 17, 2022 (Read here)

Analia Fiestas, “New Art Exhibit in Dallas Highlights Culture, Diversity and Inclusion”, NBCDFW / Telemundo 39, June 28, 2022 (Watch here)

Molly Glentzer, “JooYoung Choi and the Multiverse of Gladness”, Texas Monthly, August 2022 (Read here)

Glasstire, “Top Five: August 25, 2022” (Read here)

Exhibition website

Header Image: JooYoung Choi, Tourmaline the Celestial Architect (Detail), 2018. Acrylic paint and paper on canvas. 60 x 48 in. Courtesy of the artist and Inman Gallery. Photo: Thomas R. Dubrock.

Installation photography by Chad Redmon, Courtesy of the Crow Museum of Asian Art.