Woo Jin Joo

Woo Jin is a Seoul-born mixed-media artist working predominately with textiles and embroidery. Having graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2021 with an MA in Textiles, she has since been exploring the intersection of craft and art in her London studio.

Woo Jin’s practice is heavily inspired by her East Asian heritage. Exploring the ideas of personal myth-making and storytelling, Woo Jin draws traces of stories from East Asian mythology, folk culture, and shamanism to understand and rebuild the world around her through physical materials. Her world is full of non-human beings, demigods, and mythological creatures, and she imagines a world of multi-species collaboration and entanglement. The writings of Ursula Le Guin, Anna Tsing, and Donna Haraway are entwined with her cultural upbringing to produce an imaginary worldview manifested through tactile language. Often working with found and old objects to subvert them in her evolving mythical world, domestic objects, materials, and patterns offer a familiar and endearing entry point to the artist’s imagination.

Working with freehand machine embroidery drawn from her imagination, all her pieces are unique and special. Woo Jin’s practice is unbounded by the traditional sense of embroidery as she moves freely between the discipline, from sculptural forms to tapestry, challenging the boundaries of the medium.

Woo Jin has been awarded the Fine Art Textiles Prize, Elephant Trust Fund, and was the runner-up for the Hari Art Prize, Art Partner Create Cop, and shortlisted for the East London Art Prize. She has been published in Embroidery Magazine, Crafts Magazine, and Arts Maze Magazine.

WORK ENQUIRY

EXHIBITION

2024 December. Untitled Art Fair, Miami. A.I gallery.

2024 October. Lore. Sunny Bank Mills Gallery.

2024 September. Play. Ruup & Form.

2024 September. Making as Learning. Salts Mill Gallery.

2024 June. Thread Count. Art Station.

2024 June. Personal Treasure. Nunnery Gallery.

2024 May. Photo London. Somerset House.

2024 May. A Textile Assembly. Staffordshire St Gallery.

2024 April. The New Store Pop Up 2 by Het Nieuwe Instittut. Salone del Mobile, Milan.

2024 April. Tailored. The Hub, Sleaford.

2023 November. Peckham Craft Show. AMP Gallery.

2023 October. Designed for Life. London College of Fashion, Stratford.

2023 October. Bring Your Light. Nunnery Gallery.

2023 September. 11:11. Staffordshire St Gallery.

2023 June. Geen Woorden Maar Draden. Wereldmuseum, Rotterdam.

2023 May. Tailored. Sunny Bank Mills Gallery.

2023 January. East London Art Prize Shortlist Exhibition. Nunnery Gallery.

2022 November. Creature Comforts. JGM Gallery.

2022. October. Dutch Design Week. New Order of Fashion.

2022 September. Hari Art Prize Shortlist Exhibition. Hari Hotel.

2022 May. ME2U. Nunnery Gallery.

2022 May. Soft Dialogue. The Department Store, Brixton.

2021 October. Dutch Design Week. New Order of Fashion.

2021 July. Textiles Happening. Royal College of Art

AWARDS & FUNDINGS

2023 Cockpit Bagri Award

2023 A-N Artist Bursary

2022 Art Partner Create Cop 27 3rd Place.

2022 East London Art Prize Shortlist

2022 DYCP Arts Council Funding Round 14

2022 Hari Art Prize Shortlist.

2022 Elephant Trust Award Winner.

2021 Janome Fine Art Textiles Award Winner.

2021 Bradford Textiles Design Competition Mixed Media Textiles 3rd Place. 

2021 Textiles Society Bursary. Finalist, Highly Commended. 

RESIDENCY

2023 Hari Art Prize Finalist Residency.

2022 New Order of Fashion Man x Machine Embroidery Residency.

2022 Space Studio Online Collaborative Residency.

2019 Kyoto Design Lab Textiles Residency. 

PUBLICATION

2024 Elle Decoration NL Holiday Issue

2022 Embroidery Magazine Issue 78

2022 Art Maze Mag Issue 27

2022 Crafts Magazine Issue 293 

2022 Handwerken Zonder Grenzen Issue 229

WORKSHOP & TEACHING

2024 Imperial College Great Exhibition Road Festival Workshop Facilitator

2023 V&A Shape of Us Festival Workshop Facilitator

2023/2024 Bow Arts Artist Educator.

2023/2024 Barrowfull Festival of Colours Workshop Facilitator.

2022 Craft Council Freelance Workshop Facilitator.

2022 Craftspace In:Site Festival Workshop Facilitator.

MEMBER

2022 62 Group of Textiles Artist Associate Member.