​Karen Ahn & Wonju Seo

Teaches at The Korea Society

Karen Ahn was born in Seoul, Korea. She studied maedeup and other Korean folk art in college before coming to the U.S. to get her masters in graphic design at Pratt Institute. She worked in New York as a graphic designer and, for the past 20 years, has been creating maedeup. She has taught the art of maedeup in workshops at the Philadelphia Museum, Korean Cultural Service, Dong Hwa Korean Culture Center, Flushing Town Hall, Wave Hill, and Public Libraries throughout NYC. She has also exhibited her pieces at the Korean Cultural Service, Longwood Art Gallery, and Lee Young Hee Hanbok Museum.

Wonju Seo is a textile artist, who often incorporates Korean traditional patchwork (bojagi) techniques into her work.  Her original interpretation of the art of bojagi has inspired various geometric artworks and wearable works.   Seo received her B.F.A in Fine Arts Painting from Hongik University in Seoul Korea, and currently lives in Bergen County in New Jersey. She is a recipient of the Individual Artist Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, the Thomas Contemporary Quilt Recognition Award (Collector's Choice) from the Visions Art Museum in San Diego, California in 2012 and an Honorable Mention from the Smithtown Township Arts Council in 2011.  Seo's works are in the permanent collections of the Newark Museum,New Jersey and Charles B. Wang Center, Stony Brook University, New York. Her work has also been reviewed in a New York Times article titled "Seeing Asian Cultures Through an Indigo Lens" in 2014.  Seo has taught bojagi at The Korea Society and the Lee Young Hee Museum of Korean Culture in New York City as well as the Charles B. Wang Center in Stony Brook, New York.