Sunhwa Kim

Sunhwa Kim is a South Korean-born woodworker and furniture designer.  “My work strives to combine Eastern and Western philosophies … with traditional lacquer techniques and their influence on contemporary design,” she has noted. [1] Kim is particularly committed to the use of natural lacquers (as opposed to chemical ones) and to keeping time-honored means of working with them alive.

She holds two master's degrees; one in design and craft from the Kanazawa College of Art in Japan and one in furniture design from the Savannah College of Art and Design in the U.S.  She also has a degree in wood furniture design from Dong-A University in Korea and has studied at Ishikawa Prefecture Institute of Wajima Lacquer Art in Japan.

Since 2008, Kim has served as the coordinator of the wood/furniture design program at Buffalo State College. In 2013 she curated an exhibition at the Burchfield Penney that brought together master lacquerware artisans from throughout Asia; later the same year she was a juror for the Center’s biannual  Art in Craft Media group show.

[1] Sunhwa Kim, juror's statement, Art in Craft Media 2013 exhibition catalog, Burchfield Penney Art Center, 2013.