Joo Yeon Woo explores the in-between spaces, fluidity of identity, sense of belonging, displacement, and exchanges between Western and East Asian cultures. She embraces cultural differences, turning linguistic and cultural borders into an opportunity for cross-cultural dialogue.
Woo received a BFA (2000) from Kyungpook National University, an MFA (2003) from Hongik University in South Korea, and later an MFA (2005) from the Pennsylvania State University after she migrated to the United States. Woo is currently an associate professor of Painting and Drawing at the University of South Florida, Tampa. She has exhibited widely, including at the A.I.R. Gallery in Brooklyn, the Tampa Museum of Art in Tampa, the Sejong Museum of Art in Seoul, South Korea, and the Jorge B. Vargas Museum in Manila, Philippines. She has been a resident artist at the VCCA in Virginia, Ami Art Museum in Dangjin, South Korea, and the Red Gate Residency in Beijing, China. She received the AHL Contemporary Art Award in NYC, the Korean National Art Festival Award at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in South Korea, and was nominated for the 2022 Joan Mitchell Foundation Fellowship.