Nine Gallery

Jan 1 - 31, 2026

Yoonhee Choi

pu!p

Opening Reception: Thu, Jan 8, 5 - 8 PM

Closing Reception: Sat, Jan 31, 1 - 5 PM

In my pulp work, colors and shapes convey abstract emotion and represent memories of people and places from my everyday life straddling multiple cultures. Cotton pulp is a versatile material which provides the opportunity to compose shapes and colors intuitively in an improvisational manner with my hands and also to explore the potential as a sculptural, casting material for 3D work. I am fascinated with its imperfect, humble beauty, warm and forgiving character.

Educated as a city planner, an architect, and an artist, Yoonhee Choi creates work that explores the potentials of unexpected materials to express both multiple scales of spatial experience and intimate, personal associations. In her projects, which range from tiny collages to a huge public art installation, she uses everyday materials in an improvisational manner to search for limits and possibilities, seeking to discover new compositional devices and structures.

Choi’s work is in numerous private and public permanent collections including the Portland Art Museum, the State Library of Oregon, the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation Collection, the Allen Memorial Art Museum, the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center and the Hallie Ford Museum of Art.

Choi studied art at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, architecture at Yale University, and city planning at Hong-ik University in Seoul. Born and raised in South Korea, she currently lives in Portland, Oregon.

Nine Gallery was founded in 1987 by nine artists interested in working periodically outside the context of the commercial gallery. It is an artist-run cooperative and is administratively and financially independent from Blue Sky, funded solely by its members. Each member of Nine Gallery is in charge of the gallery for one month each year. Usually members show their own work, however, they are also welcome to curate shows of other artists’ work. Periodically the members of Nine Gallery, present work together in group exhibitions, and at other times they collectively invite other artists to show. Beyond the general interest in creating a largely non-commercial exhibition environment with a minimum of bureaucratic and institutional structure, the members of Nine Gallery have no collective ideological program or philosophy.

To purchase a copy of Nine @ 25, a Blurb publication celebrating Nine Gallery’s 25th anniversary, follow this link.

Nine Gallery shares the same hours as Blue Sky.