Mary Lee Hu

born Lakewood, Ohio, 1943

BiographyMary Lee Hu was introduced to jewelry and metalsmithing in high school. She attended the University of Miami, Ohio for two years and then went to Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield, Michigan where she completed her undergraduate degree in Metalsmithing in 1965. She went on to graduate school at University of Southern Illinois at Carbondale receiving her MFA in Metalsmithing in 1967.

During her second year of graduate school Hu started to investigate weaving and knotting techniques with wire. She wanted to emulate the lines in her sketches in her metalwork. Hu quickly noticed that the twined wire recreated this effect and adopted this technique as the basis for further innovations. She went on to develop prestigious exhibition and academic careers.

Hu was a contributing member to the development of the Society of North American Goldsmiths and served as president. Hu has received three National Endowment of the Arts Craftsman Fellowships. Her work is in major collections such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Renwick Gallery, the American Crafts Museum and the Art Institute of Chicago. She is the winner of the 2008 Irving and Yvonne Twining Humber Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement.

She currently is a professor emeritus at University of Washington, Seattle.

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