Sungho Cho  조 성 호

Craft artist

Sungho Cho is a contemporary artist and educator based in Cheongju, South Korea, whose practice bridges metalwork, contemporary jewellery, and sculptural objects. Trained in metalwork at Seoul National University and in contemporary jewellery at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich and Alchimia Contemporary Jewellery School in Florence, Italy, Cho has developed a distinctive artistic language that combines Korean craftsmanship with international perspectives.

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Describing himself as a “collector of time,” Cho explores the traces accumulated through materials and making. Fascinated by the transformative properties of metal, he creates rich textures and sculptural surfaces that reveal the passage of time through labor and process. While metal remains his primary medium, he also incorporates unexpected materials such as LEGO, expanding the expressive possibilities of contemporary jewellery and object making. For Cho, each work becomes a monument to lived experience, inviting viewers and wearers alike to discover new meanings through encounters with material and time.

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Cho's works have been acquired by major public collections, including the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and the Alice and Louis Koch Collection at the Swiss National Museum in Zurich. In 2013, he was named Best Jeweller of the Year in South Korea.

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Education

2021 D.F.A., Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea

2013 Diplom, Academy of Fine Arts Munich, Munich, Germany

2008 Diplom, Alchimia Contemporary Jewellery School, Florence, Italy

2005 M.F.A., Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea

2000 B.F.A., Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea

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Selected Awards and Collections

Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), UK

Swiss National Museum, Switzerland

Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Heidi and Karl Bollmann Collection, Austria

Center for Art in Wood, USA

2022 Herbert Hofmann Prize, Germany

2021 LOEWE Foundation Craft Prize, Finalist