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Jewelry and Metal Arts Program

●The Jewelry and Metal Arts program provides students a rich and stimulating environment for the development of their creativity, concepts, and technical skills. Students work freely without media boundaries to produce conceptual and functional jewelry, hollowware, flatware, indoor and outdoor sculpture, mixed media objects, installation pieces, and other functional and non-functional objects.

Our program is known for pioneering the use of new materials, improving and developing cutting edge technologies, and progressive concepts. This leads students to produce a substantial quantity of high-quality work for their professional portfolios, exhibitions, competitions, and publications. Our students’ work has been consistently accepted into numerous national and international competitions, many receiving awards. Outstanding works of the graduates from this program have been acquired by major museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Craft Museum, and the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Design-Cooper-Hewitt Museum. Many of these pieces were produced at the metals studio while the artists were still graduate students.

●Program offers BA, BFA, MA, MFA degrees.

●Entering graduate students are expected to be self-motivated, skilled in fundamental metalworking techniques, and capable of technical and conceptual exploration and of producing independent work.

Program Emphasis:

●The program places great emphasis on creativity and originality. The students will develop their personal artistic directions and styles. Students are encouraged to explore progressive concepts, use new materials, and develop new techniques. Students will learn to refine a variety of traditional, contemporary, and innovative metalworking techniques and other media processes.

●Students learn through demonstrations, slides, lectures, individual and group discussion/critiques, visiting artists' workshops, reading, and project assignments. Graduate workshop emphasizes portfolio preparation, participation in national and international exhibitions, practicing presentation and teaching skills, marketing experiences, in addition to working toward their professional goals.

In order to give students a broader range of career options, students have the opportunity to use tools such as AutoCAD, Rhino, 3D computer modeling, laser cutting, PhotoShop, and other advanced industrial techniques to create, render, and achieve the layouts of their designs to make one-of-a-kind or production art work. These skills help students working in many other fields as well. One of our most recent acquisitions is the “Dimension SST” 3-D printer (a rapid prototyping machine), this device converts a digital model into a real-world ABS plastic prototype. The plastic form can be used as it exists or can be transformed into metal with processes such as casting and electroforming.

Courses Offered :

Please logon to ISIS at the following link for current listings:

https://isis4.uiowa.edu/isis/courses

Introduction to Jewelry and Metal Arts  

• Fundamental metalworking techniques, including sheet metal fabrication, hammer forming, hydraulic die forming, soldering, riveting, repoussé, etching, roll printing, anodizing, stone setting, and patinations, etc.
• Creation of jewelry, flatware, and other functional and non-functional objects using metals and/or other materials.

Intermediate Jewelry and Metal Arts

• Producing work using fundamental metalworking techniques, electroforming, electro-appliqué, casting, forging, "silent metal forming," inlay, stone setting, and mold making, etc.
• Creation of jewelry, hollowware, interior and exterior sculpture, other functional and non-functional objects, and prototype pieces for production art work using metals and/or other materials.

Advanced Jewelry and Metal Arts

• Producing work using various metal forming and surface embellishment techniques including: enameling, laser print transfer/resist, lathe usage, gold plating, kumboo, etc.
• Creation of jewelry, interior and exterior sculpture, and other functional and non-functional objects.
• Encourage the creation of unique and/or mass production artwork, using 3-D CAD rendering, 4-axis CNC milling, rapid prototyping, and other CNC industrial technologies.

Mixed Media Workshop  

• Searching and experimenting with diverse media, techniques, and concepts, using unconventional and conventional materials, found objects, and invented materials.
• Creation of conceptual and/or functional mixed media or single medium objects of jewelry, sculpture, costumes, furniture, lamps, and other objects, installation pieces, and site-specific work, etc. Works will reflect the individual vision and personal statement of the students.(This applies to all metals course work)

• Students from diverse fields share their philosophies and technical knowledge.

Metals Graduate Workshop

• Independent studio work. Students continue developing and refining personal artistic directions, conceptual and technical skills necessary for professional achievement in the field of contemporary metals and craft.
• Supported in purchasing materials for experimental work and exploration of cutting-edge aesthetics and new technology.
• Portfolio preparation, fundamental presentation skills, and participation in national / international competitive exhibitions.
• Work freely using and experimenting with diverse media and new materials to produce innovative works that express personal aesthetics and statements.
• Research and thesis writing.

Jewelry and Metal Arts Summer Workshop (3-week session)

• Intensive workshop addressing a variety of levels and processes including individual instruction.

• Creation of hollowware, jewelry, sculpture, and other functional and non-functional objects via electroforming and other processes.

Faculty

Chunghi Choo

Chunghi Choo received a B.F.A. from Ewha Women’s University, Seoul, Korea and M.F.A. from Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI. She is the F. Wendell Miller Distinguished Professor of Art and Head of the Jewelry and Metal Arts program. She teaches beginning, intermediate, mixed media workshop and graduate workshop courses. Her jewelry, hollowware, flatware, sculptures, mixed media objects and textile art works have been exhibited worldwide. Her works are in the permanent collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, Great Britain; Museé des Arts Decoratifs, Paris, France; Museum für Kunsthandwerk, Frankfurt, Germany; Det Danske Kunstindustrimuseets, Copenhagen, Denmark; Metropolitan Museum of Art, N.Y.C; Museum of Modern Art, N.Y.C; American Craft Museum, N.Y.C; Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Institution’s National Design Museum, N.Y.C; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Art Institute of Chicago; Detroit Institute of Art; Toledo Museum of Art, OH; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Wustum Museum of Fine Arts, Racine, WI; General Food Corporate Headquarters, White Plains, N.Y; Long House Reserve, East Hampton, NY, and other museums and public places. She is recipient of a N.E.A. Fellowship; AMOCO Excellence in Teaching Award from Univ. of Iowa; Regents Award for Faculty Excellence from State of Iowa Board of Regents, and elected to the College of Fellows, American Craft Council, among others.

Kee-ho Yuen

Kee-ho Yuen was born in Hong Kong and received a B.A. from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1983 and an M.F.A. in Metalsmithing and Jewelry from the University of Iowa in 1989. After teaching at the University of Northern Iowa for ten years, he joined the University of Iowa as an Associate Professor of the Metalsmithing and Jewelry program in the fall of 2000, and become the Head of the program in the fall of 2001. He teaches beginning, advanced and graduate workshop metals courses, as well as teaching software techniques, including AutoCAD and 3-D computer modeling.

Kee-ho’s work has been acquired by the permanent collections of the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC; the Museum of Arts and Design (formerly American Craft Museum), New York, NY; the Museum of Art, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong; the University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, IA; Cedar Rapids Museum, Cedar Rapids, IA as well as other places. Collectors of his work include Rosanne Raab, New York, NY; Sonny Kamm, Los Angeles, CA. and Lois Jecklin, Washington, DC.

His work have been exhibited in numerous national and international invitational group and solo exhibitions as well as competitive exhibitions including: the Goldsmith Hall, London, England; Museum Für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, Germany; Pionine Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan; Seoul Art Center, Seoul, Korea; the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC; Museum of Arts and Design, Fortunoff, and Aaron Faber Gallery, New York, NY; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington; Museum of Art, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, and many times at the National Ornamental Metal Museum in Memphis, TN.

Publication of Kee-ho’s work can be found at: The Metalsmith’s Books of Boxes and lockets by Tim McCreight; Contemporary Silver: Commissioning, Designing, Creating by Benton Seymour Rabinovitch and Helen Clifford, and Metalsmith, “Exhibition in Print” 2005 issue. In addition to his various publications, Kee-ho’s work was chosen to be presented in Dawn Nakanishi’s lecture, titled “Asian Roots, Western Soil: Visual Poetry in Metal,” at the 1998 National Conference of the Society of North American Goldsmiths.

Kee-ho has currated many international and national exhibitions, such as the “International Metal Artists Invitational Exhibition” at the Kepco Plaza Gallery in Seoul, Korea in 2004; “International Jewelry and Metalsmithing Invitational” at the University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa city, IA in 2002, and “Seven British Silversmiths” at the gallery of Art of the University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA in 1997.

Lab Coordinator

Ben Anzelc

For more information about the program and students’ work, refer to the exhibition review article "University of Iowa Metal Artists," Oct./Nov. issue 1994, American Craft magazine. For further information contact:

For application forms for admission, contact:

The University of Iowa Office of Admissions

107 Calvin Hall

Iowa City, IA 52242-1396

Phone: 1-800-553-IOWA (4692)

or 319-335-3847

Email: admissions@uiowa.edu

For Scholarships offered by the Metal Arts Program, contact:

Chunghi Choo or Kee-ho Yuen

School of Art and Art History

University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242

Phone: 319-335-1793 (metals studio)

FAX: 319-335-1774

e-mail: kee-ho-yuen@uiowa.edu

For information about scholarships, loans, and student employment, contact:

The University of Iowa Office of Student Financial Aid

208 Calvin Hall

Iowa City, IA 52242-1315

For Scholarships offered by the School of Art and Art History, contact:

School of Art and Art History

The University of Iowa

120 North Riverside Drive

E 100, Art Building

Iowa City, IA 52242

Phone: 319-335-1771