Clay serves as a medium for narrating the remnants of memories forged through diverse and unpredictable relationships with others and myself. These memories manifest in my work as precarious and fragile forms, exploring the delicate balance between weakness and strength.
—Yoonjee Kwak
Yoonjee Kwak is an artist and educator originally from South Korea. Her preference for hand-building techniques stems from the directness of the fabricating process, preserving evidence of her physical interactions with clay. This interactive dialogue with the material is essential to her process.
Yoonjee earned her MFA in ceramics from the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, and her BFA in ceramics and glass from Hong-Ik University in Seoul, South Korea. Yoonjee has been honored with the James Renwick Alliance Chrysalis Award in Ceramics, and the Emerging Artist Award from Ceramics Monthly Magazine. Her work has been showcased in international exhibitions in Icheon (Korea), Chungju (Korea), Jingdezhen (China) and elsewhere. Currently Yoonjee is a full-time faculty member of the Visual Arts Department at the prestigious Loomis Chaffee School in Connecticut.