U-Ram Choe

U-Ram Choe (born 1970) is an artist based in Seoul, South Korea.

Integrating both mechanical and computerized movements within his sculptures ever since the late 1990s, Choe's works push the genre of moving kinetic art toward its newer-generation iterations, such as robotic art. but also fantastically combines elements of different lifeforms. His grandfather was a car engineer who worked on the first car developed in Korea. From a young age, Choe was fascinated with machines and science. Growing up during the Cold War and also watching many science fiction television programs, Choe aspired as a child to build robots that could protect his family. In his third year of undergraduate studies, a course taught by the artist Geum Nuri introduced him to kinetic sculpture. Also during his studies at Chung-ang, Choe began to experiment with integrating motorized elements in his sculptures. After graduating, Choe gained work experience in robotics at a commercial company named Microrobot. In 2012, Choe revisited this work by creating a sculptural version. It featured a robot form with similarly outstretched arms, surrounded by an array of tools and planning drawings.

"Anima-machine" works (c. 2002–present) After an exploratory period creating various sculptures with robotic elements during the late 1990s, in the early 2000s Choe began to apply robotic movement and engineering to fantastical, animal-like forms. In 2022, Choe developed a new body of over 49 works for a solo exhibition at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea; together, these works probe questions of human destiny. Bearing the exhibition's title, the work Little Ark opened questions where humanity is headed while using recycled and repurposed consumer cardboard for its oars.

Exhibitions Following his first solo exhibition in 1998, Choe became the first Korean artist to hold a solo exhibition at Tokyo's Mori Art Museum in 2006. He participated in global biennials such as the 2nd Gwangju Biennale, Asian Art Triennial and the Shanghai Biennial. His works have been presented at institutions such as Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art; the Asia Society Museum; Seoul Museum of Art; and the Busan Museum of Art. Choe has received the POSCO Steel Art Award Grand Prize and Today's Young Artist Award for Fine Arts Sector in 2006, the Kim Se-Choong Sculpture Award for Young Artist in 2009 and was a Signature Art Prize Finalist in 2014. In 2022, he was selected to present the ninth MMCA Hyundai Motor Series exhibition at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea.