John Pai

Choi was born in Russia in 1902 after her family fled to the country following the assassination of Empress Myeongseong in 1895 by the Japanese.

Choi's family ran a successful tea business and later sent Choi to Korea as a teen to continue her studies.

It was there that she met Pai's father.

Pai's father Pai Minsoo (배민수) was a well-known reverend and activist who was part of the Korean independence movement during the period of Japanese colonial rule.

Pai Minsoo's father was also a famous commander in the resistance movement, and was executed by the Japanese military.

When Pai was born, his father was imprisoned by the Japanese for his activist work.

Pai has two siblings, a brother named Pai Young, and sister Pai Youngai (Mary Pai).

While in prison, Pai's father met an American missionary who convinced him to study at the McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, and helped facilitate his release.

John Pai (Korean: 죤배; b. Oct. 4, 1937 in Seoul, South Korea) is an American sculptor and Pratt Institute professor emeritus.

Pai works primarily with welded metal, often creating freestanding sculptures with grid-like and curved natural shapes.

As a result, Pai's father went to the US in 1938, and Pai was unable to meet his father until he was eight and his father returned in 1945 working with the U.S. Army.

While Pai's father was away, in an effort to avoid continued surveillance and searches by the police, Choi moved the rest of the family to a remote farm in Ilsan.

When Pai's father returned at the end of World War II, he moved the family to Seoul.

Choi sent Pai at the age of 8 to study with an artist in the city after recognizing that he was interested in drawing and painting.

In December 1948, the Pai family took the USS General H. F. Hodges from Incheon to the US.

They went to Wheeling, West Virginia to stay with Pai's father's college friend Arthur Pritchard, but en route they stopped in Toledo where their host, Reverend Kenneth Cutler, suggested that Pai's father give his two younger children American names.

Pai's father decided on John and Mary.

In Wheeling, the Pais were the only Asian residents in the city.

In 1948, Pai's father went back to Korea, and in 1957, Pai's mother also returned to Korea to join her husband.

Pai stayed in Wheeling for another three years staying with a friend's family, and then moved to New Jersey to live with his brother and his brother's wife who were completing doctoral programs at Rutgers.

Pai spent part of his childhood in Ilsan and Seoul (where he began his training in visual art) before moving to the US in 1949, and spending much of his adolescence in Wheeling, West Virginia.

He continued his training at the Oglebay Institute, where he had his first solo show at the age of 15, and with the Famous Artists School's correspondence courses.

He received a full scholarship to attend Pratt, and studied industrial design, as well as sculpture later in his MFA program.

While in Pratt he expanded his scope of study to include physics, biology, and chemistry, as well as dance and music.

As a professor, he encouraged his students to also pursue interdisciplinary research to inform their artistic practices.

In New York, Pai became well-acquainted with the Korean diasporic art scene, regularly inviting artists and musicians over to his and his wife's house in Brooklyn.

Pai has regularly exhibited domestically and abroad, and the first monograph of his work titled John Pai: Liquid Steel, and written by critic John Yau, was published in 2023.

Pai's mother was Choi Soonoak.

Determined to continue Pai's art education once they moved to the US, Choi enrolled Pai in the Oglebay Institute Saturday Morning Art Program in 1950.

Pai studied with the director of the institute, Harry C. Holbert.

Holbert organized a solo exhibition of Pai's work when Pai was only 15 years old in 1952.

Despite being rejected the first time due to his age, the Pai was accepted by the Famous Artists School in Connecticut as a teen.

After trying to choose between studying art and architecture, Pai applied to Pratt and received a full four-year scholarship.

He moved to New York with his sister at the age of 21 in 1958.

The young Pai was able to explore New York's many museums, and attend numerous dance performances and concerts.

While at Pratt, he studied with designer Rowena Reed Kostellow.

After completing his Bachelor in Industrial Design (1962) and Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture at Pratt (1964), Pai began teaching at his alma mater in 1965 as the youngest ever professor appointed by the school.

As an undergraduate, he also participated in the design and production of the Hawaii Pavilion at the World's Fair in 1964 through his teacher William Katavolos.

Retiring from teaching in 2000, Pai shifted to focusing on his artistic practice full-time.

He now works and lives in Fairfield, Connecticut.