Mary Lee Hu

Mary Lee Hu (born 1943 in Lakewood, Ohio) is an American artist, goldsmith, and college level educator known for using textile techniques to create intricate woven wire jewelry.[1]

Career

Hu first became fascinated with metalwork during high school introductory courses. She later explored more work with metals during a summer camp.[2] She went on to attend Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, for two years and then went to Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan to complete her undergraduate degree. During her undergraduate education Hu developed her skills and continued to work with small scale metalwork and jewelry. In 1966 while earning her graduate degree in Metalsmithing from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois, Hu studied under renowned metalsmith L. Brent Kington. It was during this time that Hu started to work with fiber inspired techniques after taking a fiber arts course.[3] This led to the development of her signature style of wire wrapped jewelry. Since the late 1960s Hu has developed new techniques in coiling, wrapping, weaving, knitting, and twining wire. Her work consists mostly woven wire earrings, rings, bracelets, brooches, and neckpieces that emulate natural forms, movements and symmetry.[4]

After completing her MFA, Hu traveled to various places and took up different teaching positions until she joined the metal arts program in the University of Washington School of Art in 1980. She retired from the University as professor emeritus in 2006.[5]

Hu is a member and past-president of the Society of North American Goldsmiths. In 1996 Hu was inducted into the American Craft Council College of Fellows.[6] Hu has received three National Endowment of the Arts Craftsman Fellowships. Her work is in major collections such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Renwick Gallery, the American Crafts Museum and the Art Institute of Chicago. Hu is the winner of the 2008 Irving and Yvonne Twining Humber Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement.[7]

Education

Teaching

Awards and grants

Public collections

Exhibitions
1967
  • Crafts Alliance Gallery, St. Louis, MO
1969
  • "Young Americans '69", Museum of Contemporary Crafts, New York, NY
1970–72
1974
1974–77
1975
  • "Contemporary Crafts of the Americas: 1975", Competitive exhibition, Colorado State University national tour
  • "Beaux Arts designer/Craftsmen ‘75", Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, Columbus, OH.
1975–76
  • "Forms in Metal-275 Years of Metalsmithing in America", Museum of Contemporary Crafts, New York, NY
1976
1977
1978
  • "Modern American Jewelry Exhibition", Mikimoto & Co., Tokyo
  • "American Crafts at the Vatican Museum", Vatican City
  • Goldsmith Hall, London (with Harper, Scherr, Seppa)
1978–82
  • "Silver in American Life", Yale University Art Gallery
1979
1979–81
1980
1981
  • University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND
  • "Tenth anniversary Exhibition", Electrum Gallery, London, England
  • "The Golden Thread-Textures in Gold", Touring International Competition
1981–85
  • "Good as Gold: Alternative Materials in American Jewelry", Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian, Washington, DC, national tour
1982
1983
1984
  • The Hand and the Spirit Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ
1984–85
  • "Jewelry USA", organized by the Museum of Art and Design, New York, NY, national tour
1985
  • "Barbara Rockefeller Associates Collection", Anatole Orient Gallery, London, England
  • "Masterworks of Contemporary American Jewelry: Sources and Concepts", The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England
  • "International Jewelry Invitational", Rudolf Dentler Gallery, Ulm, Germany
1985–87
  • "American Jewelry NOW", Museum of Art and Design, New York, NY, Asia tour
1986–88
  • "Craft Today, Poetry of the Physical", Museum of Art and Design, New York, NY, national tour
1987–90
1988
  • Concepts Gallery, Carmel and Palo Alto, CA
  • "Korean-American Contemporary Metalwork Exhibition 1988", Walker Hill Art Center, Seoul, Korea
1989
  • "Mary Lee Hu: Goldsmith", The Merrin Gallery, New York, NY
1989–93
1991
  • "The 20th Anniversary Show", Electrum Gallery, London, England
1992
  • "Design Visions, The Second Australian International Crafts Triennial". Art Gallery of Western Australia
  • "Helen Williams Drutt Collection", Helsinki, Finland
1993
1993–96
1994
1997
2000
  • "Curves Revisited", Susan Cummins Gallery, Mill Valley, CA
2001
2002
2003
2004
  • "The Art of Gold"
  • The Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, AR
  • The Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC
  • Anchorage Museum of History and Art, Anchorage, AK
  • "Korean & American Metalsmithing Exhibition", Kepco Plaza Gallery, Seoul, Korea.

References
  1. Shaykett, Jessica (2012-02-08). "The Woven Wire Wonders of Mary Lee Hu". American Craft Council. Retrieved 2017-02-11. Hu has blazed a trail both as artist and innovator, exploring the nexus between metalsmithing and textile techniques.
  2. "Biography: Mary Lee Hu". Temple University. Archived from the original on 26 November 2017. Retrieved 26 April 2014.
  3. Shaykett, Jessica (April–May 2012). "Mary Lee Hu: Cutting Loose". American Craft. 72 (2). Retrieved 26 April 2014.
  4. Catalani], [foreword by Stefano (2012). Knitted, knotted, twisted, & twined : the jewelry of Mary Lee Hu. Bellevue, WA: Bellevue Arts Museum. ISBN 978-0615561561.
  5. Huynh, Anh (24 April 2012). "Entwined in Art". The Daily of the University of Washington. Archived from the original on 27 April 2014. Retrieved 26 April 2014.
  6. "American Craft Council College of Fellows". American Craft Council. Archived from the original on 30 April 2013. Retrieved 26 April 2014.
  7. "Mary Lee Hu". Craft in America. Archived from the original on 27 April 2014. Retrieved 26 April 2014.
  8. Geske, Norman (1 Jan 1978). American Metal Work, 1976. Sheldon Museum of Art. p. 18.
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