Anna Sew Hoy (born 1976,

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

) is an American

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

based in Los Angeles, California. She utilizes sculpture, ceramics, public art and performance to connect with our environment, and to demonstrate the power found in the fleeting and handmade. Her work has been at the forefront of a re-engagement with clay in contemporary art, and is identified with a critical rethinking of the relationship between art and craft.

Life and work

Sew Hoy completed her BFA at the

School of Visual Arts The School of Visual Arts New York City (SVA NYC) is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design. History This school was started by Silas ...

in New York City in 1998, and she finished her MFA at

Bard College Bard College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains within the Hudson River Historic District ...

in 2008. In 2019, she was hired full-time at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where she is now Associate Professor and Ceramics Area Head in the Department of Art. Sew Hoy is a recipient of the 2021

Anonymous Was a Woman Award The Anonymous Was A Woman Award is a grant program for women artists who are over 40 years of age, in part to counter sexism in the art world. It began in 1996 in direct response to the National Endowment for the Arts' decision to stop funding i ...

, and in 2018, she was the inaugural Martha Longenecker Roth Distinguished Artist in Residence at the Department of Visual Arts,

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Es ...

. In 2022, Sew Hoy was awarded a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

. Sew Hoy's work has been shown at the

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern art, modern and contemporary art museum and nonprofit organization located in San Francisco, California. SFMOMA was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th-century art ...

, the

Orange County Museum of Art The Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located on the campus of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, California. The museum's collection comprises more than 4,500 objects, with a concentration ...

, the storefront at the

Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) is a contemporary art museum with two locations in greater Los Angeles, California. The main branch is located on Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, near the Walt Disney Concert Hall. MOCA's ori ...

; Koenig & Clinton, New York; the

Aspen Art Museum Founded in 1979, the Aspen Art Museum (AAM) is a non-collecting contemporary art museum located in Aspen, Colorado, United States. AAM exhibitions include drawings, paintings, sculptures, multimedia installations and electronic media. Building ...

, Colorado; the

San Jose Museum of Art The San José Museum of Art (SJMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum in downtown San Jose, California, United States. Founded in 1969, the museum holds a permanent collection with an emphasis on West Coast artists of the 20th and 21st cent ...

; and Sikkema Jenkins & Company, New York. Sew Hoy's largest public sculpture to date, ''Psychic Body Grotto'', opened at

Los Angeles State Historic Park Los Angeles State Historic Park, also known as LA Historic Park and the Cornfield, is a California State Park located near the Chinatown and Elysian Park neighborhoods of Los Angeles. The former rail yard and brownfield consists of a long open ...

in Spring 2017, commissioned by Los Angeles Nomadic Division (LAND) and supported by a 2015

Creative Capital Creative Capital is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization based in New York City that supports artists across the United States through funding, counsel, gatherings, and career development services. Since its founding in 1999, Creative Capital has co ...

Award for Visual Arts. Her work is in the collections of the Hammer Museum at UCLA, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 1961 ...

, and the

Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD) is an art museum in La Jolla La Jolla ( , ) is a hilly, seaside neighborhood in San Diego, California, occupying of curving coastline along the Pacific Ocean. The population reported in the ...

Exhibitions

Selected solo shows

* 2023: ''New Work: Anna Sew Hoy'', San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA * 2019: ''The Wettest Letter'', Various Small Fires, Los Angeles, CA * 2017: ''Anna Sew Hoy: Psychic Grotto Storefront'', Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA * 2016: ''Invisible Tattoo,'' Koenig & Clinton Gallery, New York, NY * 2015: ''Magnetic Between'', Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, CO * 2015: ''Face No Face'', Various Small Fires, Los Angeles, CA * 2013: ''Nomadic Nights: Anna Sew Hoy, Math Bass, and Claire Kohne'', Human Resources Los Angeles, CA * 2013: ''Home Office'', Various Small Fires, Los Angeles, CA * 2011: "Nothing All Day: Anna Sew Hoy," San Jose Museum of Art, CA * 2010: ''Holes'', Sikkema Jenkins & Company, New York, NY * 2008: ''POW!'', LAXART, Los Angeles, CA * 2007–08: ''Anna Sew Hoy: hook & eye'', Karyn Lovegrove Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

Selected group shows

* 2022: ''The Hearing Trumpet, part I'', Galerie Marguo, Paris (catalog) * 2021: ''Abstracted Vocabularies'', Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, CA * 2018: ''All Hands On Deck,''

Ben Maltz Gallery The Ben Maltz Gallery at the Otis College of Art and Design was an art space in Los Angeles, California, that closed permanently in 2020. History The Ben Maltz Gallery presented group and solo exhibitions in a variety of media. The main focus was ...

Otis College of Art and Design Otis College of Art and Design is a private art and design school in Los Angeles, California, United States. Established in 1918, it was the city's first independent professional school of art. The main campus is located in the former IBM Aero ...

, Los Angeles, CA * 2018: ''NOMAD: Anna Sew Hoy, Amy Yao and Jennie Jieun Lee'', Artist Curated Projects, LA * 2017: ''From Funk to Punk: Left Coast Ceramics'', curated by Peter Held, Everson Art Museum, Syracuse, NY * 2017: ''Hecate'', Various Small Fires, Los Angeles, CA * 2016: ''L.A. Exuberance: New Gifts by Artists,''

, CA * 2015: "Surface of Color," The Pit, Los Angeles, CA * 2015: ''The Heart Is the Frame'',

Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions Located in Hollywood, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE) is a nonprofit exhibition space and archive of the visual arts for the city of Los Angeles, California, United States, currently under the leadership of Sarah Russin. History In ...

, CA * 2014: "Made In LA," Hammer Museum, Los Angeles Museum of Art's Installation, CA * 2013: "Prospect 2013," Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, CA * 2013: "And How Are We Feeling Today?" University Art Gallery, UCSD, San Diego, CA * 2011: "The More Things Change,"

, CA * 2009: "Electric Mud," curated by

David Pagel David Pagel is an American art critic, educator, curator, dioramatist and bike enthusiast. Contemporary art criticism Since 1991, Pagel has been a regular contributor to the ''Los Angeles Times.'' He is a professor of art theory and history at ...

Blaffer Art Museum Blaffer Art Museum is a non-collecting contemporary art museum located in the Arts District of the University of Houston campus. Housed in the university’s Fine Arts Building, it is part of the Kathrine G. McGovern College of the Arts. It was ...

, Houston, TX * 2008–2009: ''Now You See It'', Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, CO * 2008: "California Biennial 2008," Orange County Museum of Art, CA * 2008: "Lutker, Sew Hoy, Youngblood: California Biennial 2008," California Biennial 2008, University Art Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA * 2007: ''Eden's Edge: Fifteen LA Artists'', Hammer Museum,

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

, Los Angeles, CA * 2006: "Cosmic Wonder,"

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) is a multi-disciplinary Contemporary art, contemporary arts center in San Francisco, California, United States. Located in Yerba Buena Gardens, YBCA features visual art, performance, and film/video that cel ...

, San Francisco, CA * 2006: ''One Way or Another: Asian American Art Now'',

Asia Society The Asia Society is a 501(c)(3) organization that focuses on educating the world about Asia. It has several centers in the United States (Manhattan, Washington, D.C., Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle) and around the world (Hong Ko ...

, New York, NY * 2005: "Diamond Hand Grenade,"

Midway Contemporary Art Midway Contemporary Art is a non-profit arts organization located in the Sheridan neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canad ...

, Minneapolis, MN

Publications

''Anna Sew Hoy: Suppose and a Pair of Jeans'', Published by RAM Distribution, May 2013,

External links

Anna Sew Hoy artist website

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sew Hoy, Anna 1976 births Artists from Auckland Living people 21st-century American women sculptors 21st-century American sculptors School of Visual Arts alumni Bard College alumni