Seowoo Choi | ANIMA

ANIMA
By Seowoo Choi

“I treat three-dimensional clay forms as my canvas, using glaze and other ceramic materials as both pigment and medium to draw and paint across their surfaces. Rather than working on a flat plane, I allow images to unfold through the volume, contours, and spatial presence of the sculptural form.”
– Seowoo Choi

“Through repeated processes of glazing and firing, the works continually transform. Their surfaces accumulate layers, while their forms and images shift between abstraction and figuration. What begins as a gesture or an image may become something entirely different after another firing, allowing the work to evolve beyond what I initially imagined.

I think of these works as ‘anima’—new forms of life emerging through the kiln. With each firing, they seem to gain vitality, as though developing their own breath, presence, and energy. This sense of aliveness is at the heart of my practice. I want to create works that appear to breathe and pulse, suspended between stillness and movement, as if their lives are only beginning.

In creating these ‘anima’, I also seek something for myself. I hope to encounter their vitality again, so that the energy I give to the work returns to me. Ultimately, I want to share this exchange with the viewer, inviting them to experience ceramics as something alive, evolving, and capable of giving life back.”
– Seowoo Choi

Seowoo Choi

Seowoo Choi is a Korean ceramic artist whose practice is rooted in a craft-based understanding of ceramics and has expanded into contemporary ceramic art. Her artistic journey began with an education in Digital Art & Craft, where she developed a foundation in material exploration and making, and continued through graduate studies in Ceramics and Glass at Hongik University in Seoul. She later pursued an MFA in Ceramic Art at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, where her practice expanded through an experimental and contemporary approach to the medium.

Moving between the traditions of craft and the possibilities of contemporary ceramics, Choi continues to question how ceramic materials can be understood, experienced, and transformed. Her work has been exhibited in South Korea and the United States. She currently lives and works in Athens, Georgia.

Seowoo Choi is a Korean ceramic artist whose multidisciplinary practice is grounded in an exploration of material, form, and the sculptural possibilities of clay. She holds an MFA in Ceramic Art from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University and an MFA in Ceramics and Glass from Hongik University in Seoul, following a BFA in Digital Art and Craft from Dongduk Women’s University.

Her artistic development bridges ceramics with digital and contemporary approaches, while her research explores the physical and visual transformation of ceramic materials, including the sculptural possibilities created through glaze fusion.
Choi has exhibited her work extensively in Korea and the United States, with recent presentations including her 2025 MFA exhibition at Fosdick-Nelson Gallery in Alfred, New York, Soft Logic at Greenwich House Pottery, and the 2026 National Juried Exhibition at First Street Gallery in New York.

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Her work has also been selected for international ceramic exhibitions, including the 2026 Korea-Canada Invitational Ceramic Exhibition and the GCB 2026 International Competition, both held at the Gyeonggi Museum of Contemporary Ceramic Art in Icheon, South Korea.
Currently based in Athens, Georgia, Choi continues to develop her ceramic practice while working as a Visiting Artist in the Ceramic Art Department at the University of Georgia. Her work and practice were recently featured in the Autumn 2026 issue of Art Seen Magazine.

Visit: seowoochoi.com | Instagram: @seowoo.choi_ceramics