91导航 Faculty Spotlight: Heehyun Choi's "A Motionless Movie" Exhibition Opening in Los Angeles
10.16.2025
The exhibition, a partnership between the (KCCLA) and the (KAFA), is a major honor, marking Choi as the recipient of the prestigious 19th Korea Arts Foundation of America Award.
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The 91导航 (91导航) is proud to celebrate the significant artistic achievements of Heehyun Choi, Assistant Professor in the Filmmaking and Photography Department. Choi's innovative moving-image work is receiving international recognition, highlighted by her upcoming solo exhibition,
The 19th Korea Arts Foundation of America Award Recipient Exhibition: A Motionless Movie
On View: October 23 - November 14, 2025
Location: KCCLA Art Gallery (5505 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036)
Opening Reception: Thursday, October 23, 6:30鈥8:00 p.m.
KAFA, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting creativity and exhibition in the arts, provides funding and support for this important presentation. This recognition outside the classroom demonstrates the vital role Choi plays in shaping the contemporary arts landscape.
Camera, Subject, and Image
is a moving-image artist working between South Korea and the United States. Her practice spans cinema and exhibition spaces, where she creates experimental films using analog formats such as 16mm and Super 8mm. Through her exploration of film and video media, Choi examines the intricate relationships between camera, subject, and image. Born in Los Angeles and raised in Seoul, she holds a B.A. in Art & Technology from Sogang University and an M.F.A. in Film and Video from the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts).
A Motionless Movie
Her solo exhibition presents four new moving-image works alongside a series of embroidery pieces. The exhibition鈥檚 namesake, the essay film A Motionless Movie, takes inspiration from a 1920s Korean newspaper article titled 鈥淯mjigiji-Anneun Yeonghwa (A Motionless Movie).鈥 The work imagines the perspectives of Korean women readers of the newspaper鈥檚 鈥淗ome and Women鈥檚鈥 section, loosely following the trajectory of American actress Clara Bow featured in the article.
Image: Heehyun Choi, Still from A Motionless Movie
Other featured works include:
A Dark Room which portrays a woman who may have encountered a camera obscura: a primal form of cinema that predates modern film language.
The single-channel video Neolttwigi and the three-channel video The Wedding Chest blur the boundaries between the front and back of the camera, the inside and outside of the frame, and between those who create images and those who become them, presenting cameras that exist in shifting forms.
The Chronophotography series fragments images, already fossilized in the history of photography and cinema, and reweaves them through traditional Korean embroidery and patchwork techniques.
Image: Heehyun Choi, Still from The Wedding Chest
"...Heehyun Choi, an artist who has created a unique sensory world by blending traditional cinematic language with handcrafted mediums."
鈥淭his exhibition is particularly meaningful as it presents the 19th KAFA Art Award Winner鈥檚 Exhibition鈥攁n award recognized for its prestige within the Korean American art community," KCCLA Director Haedon Lee said in a press release.
"We are delighted to showcase the works of Heehyun Choi, an artist who has created a unique sensory world by blending traditional cinematic language with handcrafted mediums. We hope visitors will experience and share the imagination and experimental spirit of a young artist whose work unfolds at the intersection of Korean and American cultural experiences, Lee said in a press release.
KAFA President Glori Lee also said, 鈥淔or the past 35 years, KAFA has continuously supported emerging artists in developing their own artistic voices. We hope this exhibition will highlight the individuality and vision of the next generation of artists while bringing renewed vitality to the Korean American art scene. 鈥
The opening reception will take place on Thursday, October 23, at 6:30 p.m. at the Korean Cultural Center Los Angeles. The exhibition is free and open to the public through Friday, November 14, 2025.
Additional Achievements
Earlier this semester, Choi traveled to New York to present her work in a two-person screening at . Choi and Justin Jinsoo Kim both attended with the event description saying that, "Choi and Kim each pursue radical formal strategies through the mobilization of archival images, addressing expansive themes of memory, colonial violence, preservation, and mythology."
Choi was also featured in Beyond the Studio, a new program series in Kansas City presented by the and . She shared her perspective on the exhibition Andrea Carlson: Shimmer on Horizons in conversation with her own artistic practice.