Artist

Mary Lee Hu

born Lakewood, OH 1943
Born
Lakewood, Ohio, United States
Active in
  • Olmsted Falls, Ohio, United States
  • Seattle, Washington, United States
Biography

Born in Lakewood, Ohio, Mary Lee Hu earned a B.F.A. degree in 1965 at Cranbrook Academy of Art and an M.F.A. in 1967 at Southern Illinois University, where she first explored weaving wire—a characteristic of her jewelry.

Hu creates unique jewelry by weaving metal threads as if they were textiles. Over the years, her style has evolved, but her techniques and materials have remained consistent; her hands are her primary tools. Always conscious of the wearer of her jewelry, she seeks to create objects that adorn rather than overpower the individual.

Hu has researched body adornment in many places, including Taiwan, Hong Kong, Tibet, New Zealand, Australia, and Papua New Guinea. She is a past president of the Society of North American Goldsmiths and a professor of art at the Univeristy of Washington.

Kenneth R. Trapp and Howard Risatti Skilled Work: American Craft in the Renwick Gallery (Washington, D.C.: National Museum of American Art with the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998)

Works by this artist (1 item)

Andy Paiko, Spinning Wheel, 2007, glass, cocobolo, steel, brass, and leather, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Peg and Bob Van Andel, 2012.7A-GG, © 2007, Andy Paiko
Spinning Wheel
Date2007
glass, cocobolo, steel, brass, and leather
Not on view

Exhibitions

Media - 2016.11 - SAAM-2016.11_6 - 124929
Connections: Contemporary Craft at the Renwick Gallery
November 13, 2015March 6, 2022
Connections is the Renwick Gallery’s dynamic ongoing permanent collection presentation, featuring more than 80 objects celebrating craft as a discipline and an approach to living differently in the modern world.