Yeonjae Choi emigrated to Aotearoa New Zealand from Korea when she was still in primary school. Her experience growing up as an Asian immigrant forms the backbone of her ceramic sculpting practice. Gaining her fine arts degree from RMIT University, Melbourne in 2017, Choi went on to win the Mark Brabham Emerging Artist Award in the Klytie Pate Art Awards for a collaborative work with Australian artist Karima Baadilla.
The first thing you notice about Choi's works are their soft curves, their luminous glazes, and the playful suggestion that they might be living creatures, complete with their own personality. Spend more time with them, and get close enough to peer deep into their crevices, and an alternate realm reveals itself.
This consideration of both the exterior and interior of each sculpture transforms the work from a singular object into a prismatic one. It is a sculpture and it is a painting within a sculpture. More than just a clever creative notion, the work is Choi giving form to the inherent duality present within all aspects of life, interpreted through the lens of a young woman who has grown up with two cultural narratives.
Choi's work is sensual, elegant and meticulously rendered. Her lightness of touch and skill as a ceramicist and painter belie her age - the result of the fact that Choi works from a deeply personal place. Within each of her works is either an overt or subtle expression of femininity and the lived female experience. It is this potentially controversial, slightly subversive undercurrent that elevates Choi's work and sets her apart from her ceramic artist peers. She does not shy away from who she is, expressing it all through gentle organic forms and sweet pastel colours. Jessica Agoston Cleary.