Sam Chun

Enrollment Operations Manager for Continuing Education/CUSAI Program Coordinator and Recruiter

Sam Chun is a New York City based artist, born in New Jersey to immigrant parents from Seoul, South Korea. He graduated from The Cooper Union with a BFA in 2011. 

His art touches on aspects of history, the present, and future aesthetics referencing Chōseon Dynasty ideologies, perspectives, and tastes. Growing up in the 90’s, each Korean community in the US had at least one video (VHS) rental store where the Korean community can rent dramas, variety shows, and movies shipped from Korea. One of the types of shows Chun grew up watching were historical dramas. Although seemingly innocuous, and often times extremely cheesy, these shows have had a profound impact on his understanding of perspective. He felt a kinship to his inherited history and also a deep sense of foreignness having been surrounded by Americanness which was also just as foreign. Chun is interested in the un-pinpointable, the un-labelable, and curious objects that are about multiplicity within a singularity acting as a super organism. 

Recent exhibition venues: Ryan Lee Gallery and Jack Hanley Gallery.

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.