Mary lee hu metal artists symposium workshop jin ze arts centre 2013 jun
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.
Hu first became fascinated with metalwork during high school introductory courses. She later explored more work with metals during a summer camp. 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. 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.
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.
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. 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.
Education
1965: B.F.A. Metalsmithing, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI
1967: M.F.A. Metalsmithing, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL
1975: Best in Show, Best in Metals, Outstanding Craftsman of the North Central Region, Purchase Award, "Beaux Arts Designer/Craftsman '75", Columbus Museum of Fine Arts, Columbus, OH
1992: National Endowment for the Arts Crafts Fellowship
1996: Appointed as a Fellow of the American Crafts Council
1999: Elected “Master of the Medium” for the James C. Renwick Alliance, the Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian, Washington, DC
2001-02: Flintridge Foundation Award for Visual Artists
2002 Donald E. Peterson Endowed Fellowship for Excellence, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Washington
2004: Invited to start a Mary Lee Hu research collection at The Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, part of the Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America.
2008: The Irving and Yvonne Twining Humber Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement from Artist Trust of Washington.
