Robert Choe-Henderson

Robert Choe-Henderson is a Korean American artist and educator living in Florida. Inspired by the resiliency of the Asian diaspora casting across fine arts, craft, and book cultures, Robert uses his training in traditional East Asian papermaking and book arts to explore ethnic and gender dynamics within Asian American identity through an interdisciplinary approach to exhibition and scholarship. Spending most of his childhood surrounded by practitioners of traditional Korean papercrafts, his adaptations to hanji (Korean handmade paper) and jiseung (indigenous paper weaving) are profound in his sculptural artist’s books and woven structures. He remembers the hours of paper twisting and cording alongside his halmony (grandmother), listening to memories of a life stricken with heartache during an occupied Korea, redevelopment after the war, and shock within new American culture. Paying homage to halmony’s transparency, he brings his own narratives into tangible form, connecting Korean roots to American jadedness. Developing trust through creative expression, no matter the uneasiness, is necessary for valuable connections between history and its people. He hopes his lens opens other avenues for all peoples to explore their truths without censorship. 

Robert is a member of the Korean American Artist Collective (KAAC), finding his community among other Korean American artists and art workers. His mission is to promote and teach the rich histories of Korean craft as part of a small handful of hanji practitioners and researchers in the United States. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Arts from Western Carolina University, and a Master of Fine Arts in Book Arts from the University of Iowa Center for the Book. Some of his accolades include: 2018-2019 Iowa Arts Fellowship;  2020-2021 Caxton Club grant; 2021 ArtistRelief.org grant; and most recently the Spring 2023 Artist-in-Residence (AiR) at the University of Arkansas Fort Smith.