The Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI) 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.

The 19th Korea Arts Foundation of America Award Recipient Exhibition(Poster) (1)

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, 6:30–8:00 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

Heehyun Choi 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’s namesake, the essay film A Motionless Movie, takes inspiration from a 1920s Korean newspaper article titled “Umjigiji-Anneun Yeonghwa (A Motionless Movie).” The work imagines the perspectives of Korean women readers of the newspaper’s “Home and Women’s” 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."

Haedon Lee | KCCLA Director

“This exhibition is particularly meaningful as it presents the 19th KAFA Art Award Winner’s Exhibition—an 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, “For 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. “

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 Accent Sisters. 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 Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art and Charlotte Street. She shared her perspective on the exhibition Andrea Carlson: Shimmer on Horizons in conversation with her own artistic practice.