Kong Ho is a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program Fellow (2009-2010), an VSA arts Teaching Artist Fellow (2008-2009), a University Fellow of Hong Kong Baptist University (2006-2007), a Sasakawa Fellow (2005), and a University of Pittsburgh Faculty Diversity Fellow (2003). Ho utilizes his bicultural background as an artist trained in both Chinese and Western art to teach art as associate professor of art and interdisciplinary arts program director at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, Pennsylvania, fall 2001 to present. Born and raised in Hong Kong, Ho holds a M.F.A. degree in painting and drawing from Texas Tech University in 1994 and a B.A. degree in fine arts from The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1985. Recently, Ho has received a prestigious Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program lecturing award to teach mural painting in the fine arts department of the National Academy of Art in Sofia, Bulgaria in spring 2010. Ho awarded a VSA arts Teaching Artist Fellowship for a year-long professional development in teaching last year. In 2006, he received a five-month University Fellowship from Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University where he helped to set up the printmaking program and studio as well as engaged in research and other scholarly activities. In 2005, he was granted a Sasakawa Fellowship from the American Association of State Colleges and Universities in attending three-week national faculty development institute.
Prior to teaching at Pitt-Bradford, Ho also taught at the Hong Kong Baptist University for three years, Western Texas College for a year, and University of Hong Kong for three years. During his teaching years, Ho was also active as a producing artist and muralist. In 1997, Ho founded the Hong Kong Mural Society, a nonprofit art organization, promoting mural art in Hong Kong. Ho has developed a reputation in the mural art after organized 36 granted public mural projects with 16 commission murals. In 2004, Ho was awarded as Festival Fellow of the 2004 International VSA arts Festival holding in Washington D.C. and commissioned a mural project for the festival. Ho also completed a four-story high and 3,300 sq. ft. heritage mural in Mt. Jewett, Pennsylvania, which was sponsored by the McKean County Arts Council in 2004. In 2007, Ho completed an indoor Old City Hall Historical Mural commissioned by the Office of Economic and Community Development, City of Bradford. In 2008, he and his students finished the second indoor mural, Blaisdell Hall The Arts Mural, in the Pitt-Bradford campus.
Ho has participated in over 90 international and national exhibitions including 14 solo exhibitions. His art work has been exhibited in venues such as the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, the US Ambassadors’ Residences in Macedonia, the New Bulgarian University in Bulgaria, the Clymer Museum and Gallery in Washington, the Amarillo Museum of Art in Texas, the Fine Arts Museums in New Mexico, the Joseph D. Carrier Art Gallery in Canada, the Osaka Prefecture University in Japan, and Hong Kong Museum of Art. His award-wining art has been collected by the organizations as University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, Binney & Smith Corporate Art Collection and The Weeks Gallery in New York, VSA arts in Washington D.C., The Columbus Art Guild in Ohio, Academy of Art in Bulgaria, Osaka Prefecture University in Japan, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Baptist University, and Hong Kong Heritage Museum.
Moreover, his work has been published in Teaching Artist Journal, Vol. 8, No. 2, 2010; New Art International, XIV 2009-2010; The International Journal of the Arts in Society, Vol. 1, Issue 5, 2007; Perspective, Vol. 7, No. 3, 2006; Asian Art News, Vol. 13, No. 4, 2004 and The New Art Examiner, 21 No. 5, 1994 and Art in America, Feb. 1994. Besides teaching, Ho has organized 35 regional and international art exhibitions for the past 12 years, and served as art juror in several juried art exhibitions, including Art in the Wilds Fine Arts Show and Hong Kong Invitational Mural Design Competition.
Website
http://www.kongho.com
