Heehyun Choi Named 2026 Charlotte Street Visual Artist Award Winner
08.03.2026
Since joining the KCAI faculty in 2023, Choi has expanded her acclaimed filmmaking practice into installation, sculpture, and textile-based image-making, exploring the connections between moving images, memory, and material.
The Kansas City Art Institute is proud to announce that Assistant Professor of Filmmaking Heehyun Choi has been named a recipient of the 2026 Charlotte Street Visual Artist Award.
An accomplished filmmaker, Choi has spent her career exploring the relationship between images, identity, and representation. Born in Los Angeles and raised in Korea, she studied media art at Sogang University in Seoul before completing graduate studies at the California Institute of the Arts. After joining KCAI’s faculty in 2023, she quickly became part of Kansas City’s interdisciplinary arts community, presenting her experimental films at the Crossroads’ Stray Cat Film Center shortly after her arrival.
In recent work, Choi has expanded beyond the screen by combining archival photography, embroidery, and traditional Korean textile practices. Her ongoing exploration of bojagi, handmade Korean wrapping cloths passed through generations of women, has inspired new works that examine connections between fabric, film screens, editing, and storytelling.
The Charlotte Street Visual Artist Award recognizes this evolution, honoring Choi alongside artists working across painting, sculpture, and other visual disciplines. This fall, her work will be featured in the Charlotte Street Visual Artists Awards exhibition at KCAI’s Emily & Todd Voth Artspace (details to follow).