Mary Lee Hu

Mary Lee Hu is a masterful and passionate weaver of metal. As an artist, lecturer, and teacher, she has been an active contributor to the civic and cultural life of Washington State for nearly four decades. Mary realized in high school that metalsmithing was what she wanted to do for the rest of her life and she continues to be an innovator in her field.

Mary has received numerous awards including the Flintridge Foundation Award for Visual Artists and three NEA Crafts Fellowships. Her work is in the following collections: Renwick Gallery, National Museum of American Art; Art Institute of Chicago; Tacoma Art Museum; Yale University Art Gallery; American Craft Museum; the Victoria and Albert Museum, among others. Selected exhibitions include: “Jewelry by Artists: The Daphne Farago Collection,” Museum of Fine Art, Boston; Korean & American Metalsmithing Exhibition, Kepco Plaza Gallery, Seoul, Korea; “Craft in America: Expanding Traditions,” National Tour; “The Art of Gold,” Crocker Art Museum, and US Tour; “Sculptural Concerns: Contemporary American Metalworking”, Fort Wayne Museum and National Tour.

Mary was nominated for the Twining Humber Award by 2002 THA recipient Patti Warashina, who stated, “Mary’s artistic talents have broadened and enriched the aesthetics of the field of contemporary studio jewelry. Her research in gold work has brought her much notoriety worldwide. She is in a class of her own. Her experimentation with woven gold wire into fabulous neck pieces, cuffs and rings are a sight to behold. She is an artist who is focused and committed to her work and has stretched the boundaries in the field. Dedication in this laborious and technically difficult work is boundless, and she has shared her wisdom and research with the hundreds of students she has touched.”