a curator's office in a micro gallery setting
at the micro gallery
symbioland: works by Jiha Moon
Curatorial text by Lauren Ross, independent curator and former Director of White Columns, New York
Drawing
has recently experienced a renewal of importance in the art world.
In fact,
it has rarely been as widely represented in the biennials, art fairs,
and exhibitions as it is now. Jiha Moon is one of the important emerging
artists whose studio practice embraces contemporary and historic drawing
styles. Lauren Ross, independent curator and former director of White
Columns, NY, writes about the artist's work: "The captivating dynamism
of Jiha Moon's drawings results from a complex mix. Formally trained
in painting both in her native Korea and her adopted homeland of the
United States, she has been a student of Eastern and Western artistic
traditions alike. The experiences and memories of her two homes translate
into her work’s varied geography, wildlife, flora and fauna, light
and weather patterns. Into these she weaves references to the narratives
of folklore and the spectacle of popular culture. From these myriad sources,
Moon culls and reconstitutes her diverse artistic and cultural blend.
Within a terrain of Eastern flatness and Western recession, the observed
and the fantastical are seamlessly united.
This exhibition presents scapes—of the mind as much as the land—that
are climatically unpredictable. Turbulent storms and calm reprieves alternatively
refresh and suffocate. Mythical creatures flourish among tangled vines
and delicate petals in gardens of rushes and pools. Brushstrokes bloom
like flowers, and then peel apart into colored ribbons. Water is set ablaze.
Nature heals and destroys itself. Opaque lines pierce through transparent
washes, like flashes of lucidity in clouds of delirium.
Despite their enticing tensions, these works are not simply about the play
of opposites against one another. For someone whose experiences are diverse,
seeming dichotomies often serve as accepted complements. Moon fashions
a world in which the exquisite and the grotesque are allowed to intermingle
harmoniously, and the clashing of strange forces paradoxically can be familiar
and comforting."
View exhibition
Jiha Moon earned her BFA from Korea University, Seoul, Korea; an MFA from
Ewha Women's University, Seoul, Korea, and an MA and MFA from the University
of Iowa, Iowa City, IA.
Moon's work has been exhibited at numerous venues including: White Columns,
New York, NY; the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta, GA; Kunstoffice,
Berlin, Germany; Kunsthalle M3, Berlin, Germany; Elizabeth Roberts Gallery,
Washington, DC; Korean Cultural Service, Washington, DC, McLean Project
for the Arts, McLean, VA; Arlington Arts Center, Arlington, VA; the University
of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, IA; Eve Drewelowe Gallery, University
of Iowa, Iowa City, IA. the Brain Factory in Seoul, Korea, and the Hunt
Gallery of Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, Virginia. She is the current
grand-prize $ 10,000 winner of the prestigious Trawick Prize exhibition
at the Creative Partners Gallery in Bethesda, MD.
Read the Washington Post review by Michael O'Sullivan
Read the Washington Post review by Jessica Dawson
Read the Washington Post article about Moon's donation to the Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund