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Yoon Ah (Yoonah) Hwang Faculty Profile

Yoon Ah (Yoonah) Hwang

Assistant Professor of Art History
Fine Arts Division, Seaver College
CAC 206

Biography

Yoon Ah (Yoonah) Hwang is an Assistant Professor of Art History at Seaver College. Prior to joining Pepperdine, she served as a Postdoctoral Scholar-Teaching Fellow in the Department of Art History at the University of Southern California from 2021 to 2024. She earned her Ph.D. from USC in 2021, after completing M.A. degrees in Art History from both Seoul National University and USC, and a B.A. in Korean History from Yonsei University. Her research specializes in Buddhist art and material culture in medieval China, exploring the intricate connections between textile production, rituals, materiality, and artistic practice and exchange from a global perspective. In her dissertation, “Projecting Wishes on Flying Banners: Materiality and Painted Banners from Cave 17 in Mogao Caves, Dunhuang, China in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries,” she examines the artistic labor, material qualities, and religious functions of painted banners from the Library Cave. Her recent publication, "Materialized Wishes: Long Banners from the Mogao Caves of Dunhuang" in Religions (2023), further delves into these themes. Currently, she is developing a book manuscript tentatively titled Sacred Painted Surface: Material Cultures of Painted Banners of Dunhuang. In addition, she has gained professional experience at museums worldwide, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the National Museum of Korea in Seoul.

Education

  • Ph.D. in Art History, University of Southern California
  • M.A. in Art History, University of Southern California
  • M.A. in Art History, Seoul National University
  • B.A. in History, Yonsei University

 

Research

  • Yoonah Hwang, “Colors in Rituals: Long Banners from the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang,” Art and Religion in Asia, Edited by Hawon Ku, Heejung Kang, and Eunseok Song (forthcoming in 2025)
  • 黃閏雅, “物化心愿：敦煌莫高窟出土长条幅画” in Yishu yu wuxing: Zhongguo meishu zhong de “cailiao” he “caizhi” 艺术与物性: 中国美术中的“材料”和“材质” (Art and Materiality: “Material” and “Materialistic qualities” in Chinese Art, Edited by Wu Hung (forthcoming in 2024).
  • Yoonah Hwang, Review of Spatial Dunhuang: Experiencing the Mogao Caves, by Wu Hung, H-Buddhism Reviews, January 2024.
  • Yoonah Hwang, “Materialized Wishes: Long Banner Paintings from the Mogao Caves of Dunhuang.” Religions 14, no. 1, 2023. https://www.mdpi.com/2037598
  • Yoonah Hwang, “Conversing in Clay: Ceramics from LACMA Collection,” an exhibition at Los Angeles County Museum of Art, August 7, 2022–May 21, 2023. Misul sahak yeongu 美術史學硏究 (Korean Journal of Art History) 315 (2022): 249-250.

Presentations

  • Yoonah Hwang, “The Materiality of the Long Banners from Cave 17 of the Mogao Caves and Salvation Rituals in Dunhuang,” Ritual and Materiality in Buddhism and Asian Religions, Princeton University, June 13-15, 2023.
  • Yoonah Hwang, "Exploring the Connection between Wall Paintings of the Mogao Caves and Painted Banners from Cave 17," New Directions in the Study of Silk Road Material Culture: An Online Workshop Jointly Organized by the Dunhuang Academy and the University of Southern California, April 11, 2023.
  • Yoonah Hwang (Discussant), “Art beyond the Plateaus: Tibet in the Artistic and Religious Exchanges across the Himalayas, Central Asia, and China,” as part of a university-wide initiative, “Art, Religion, History Collaborative Group.” University of Southern California, November 4, 2022.
  • Yoonah Hwang, “Reexamining Paintings from Dunhuang at the National Museum of Korea,” The 19th Congress of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, Seoul National University, Republic of Korea, August 14–19, 2022.
  • Yoonah Hwang, “Long Banner of Bodhisattvas: Its Economic Use of Materials and Original Display as a Double-Sided Painting,” The 109th College of Art Association Annual Conference, February 10–13, 2021.
  • Yoonah Hwang, “Artistic Labor and Materials of Stein painting 52 from Cave 17, Mogao Caves of Dunhuang, China,”观念•技术视野•视角—敦煌石窟研究方法论国际学术研讨会 (Concept, Technology, and Perspective—International Symposium on Methodology in Dunhuang Studies), Dunhuang Academy, Dunhuang, China, October 26–31, 2018. 
  • Yoonah Hwang, “Walking Through the Red Walls: Color and Ritual Experience in Cave 20 at Bezeklik,” The Symposium of the Getty Consortium Seminar: “To Dye the World: Interdisciplinary Approach to Color,” Getty Research Institute Lecture Hall, The Getty Center, Los Angeles, March 2013.

Grants

  • The Metropolitan Center for Far Eastern Art Studies Individual Grant, 2023-2024

Topics

  • Material Culture of the Silk Roads
  • Buddhist Art in Asia
  • Textiles
  • Artistic Practice
  • Cultural Interactions

Courses

  • ARTH 200: World Art I