Korean-born glass artist Eunsuh Choi is a portrait artist, whose flameworked pieces are personal narratives, portraits of her own moments of growth.
Eunsuh Choi’s is the archetypal immigrant’s tale run through the artist’s filter. Choi arrived in the U.S. having already completed a master’s degree in glass from Kookmin University (S. Korea), but determined to pursue further glass education. She chose the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) as a place where she could both study English and earn a second MFA degree in glass.
Eunsuh Choi uses flameworking techniques to create objects and installations composed of intricately fused glass threads. Sitting in diligent concentration behind a small torch, she bends and joins thin glass rods into complex arrangements and systematic structures evoking the textiles she studied in S. Korea.
Today, the artist forms countless tiny glass rods into a cube composed within a perfect hexahedron. Eunsuh works her way through a psychological journey that juxtaposes aspiration and limitation; meanwhile, the forms in her art shift reflect the mental work. She has produced a succession of melting ladders, cages, boxes, and trees. “In my current work I combine a box or house with the organic form of the tree. The tree becomes a metaphor for self-reaching, climbing, singing, and striving. I place the tree inside the box or house, a cage with triangular symmetrical shapes as the object that lives and breathes and has the capability of growing or dying. It represents my struggle inside the box of my existence when, as a foreigner and woman, I come across limitations on the attainment of my dreams. I am in the process of flameworking my way out of the box.”
Choi strongly prefers to work larger than life. One piece “Aspiration” which is 12ft height is on permanent collection at the Corning Museum of Glass. Her artworks are also in the European Museum of Modern Glass (Germany), Cafesjian Center for the Arts, Cafesjian Foundation (Armenia), Wallace Library, Rochester Institute of Technology (USA), Lotte Hotel Yangon (Myanmar), Korea Craft Museum (S. KOREA), Kim Young English Institute (S. KOREA), EU Glass (USA), Pureun Cultural Foundation (S. KOREA), Tozour Energy Systems (USA), Byuck San Engineering Co.Ltd (S. KOREA) and she was nominated as a searchlight artist by the American Craft Council in 2009 and got a talent award from Jutta Cuny-Franz Foundation in Germany in April 2013.
Choi’s work has been featured in a number of magazines, including Sculpture Magazine (USA), NEUES GLAS (GERMANY), The Flow magazine (USA), DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE (USA), Coburger Tage Bllatt (GERMANY), Necie Presse (GERMANY), Pittsburgh magazine (USA), Whirl (USA), Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (USA), South Jersey Times (USA), Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (USA), 500 Rings (USA), Art Buzz (USA), NICHE Magazine (USA), Public Art magazine (S. KOREA), GLASHAUS (Germany), Glass (USA), Profitable Glass Magazine (USA), American Craft Magazine (USA), Baltimore Style Magazine (USA), Jungle Magazine (S. KOREA), Luxury Magazine (S. KOREA), New Glass Review (USA). She has given lectures at The State University of New York College at Brockport (USA), Rochester Institute of Technology (USA), International Flameworking Conference (USA), Tyler School of Temple University (USA), Chungju University (S. KOREA), Kookmin University (S. KOREA), Wilson High School (USA), UrbanGlass (USA), International Society of Glass Beadmakers (USA), Hongik University (S. KOREA), Flint Institute of Art (USA), and Cornish College of the Arts (USA).
Choi has been working glass for over 26 years and has broad knowledge in all aspects of glass.
Eunsuh Choi seems destined to be a notable presence on the American glass art stage for years to come.
