JAN 23 Jiha Moon Opens @ SALTWORKS 6-9pm
January 18, 2010
Blue Peony and Impure Thoughts
Exhibitions Dates: January 23, 2010 – March 6, 2010
Opening Reception: Saturday, January 23, 6pm-9pm
SALTWORKS is pleased to present Blue Peony and Impure Thoughts, featuring new works on paper and an installation by Atlanta-based artist Jiha Moon. The exhibition will be on view from January 23, 2010 through March 6, 2010. This is the second solo exhibition of Ms. Moon’s work at the gallery.
Throughout her artistic career, the multivalent paintings of Korea-born and Atlanta-based artist Jiha Moon have operated in several distinctive yet visually cohesive realms. As the title of her current Saltworks Gallery exhibition—“Blue Peony and Impure Thoughts”—suggests, this handsome body of work simultaneously conflates cultural references and confounds expectations, all while accommodating multiple audience interpretations.
The unnatural abounds in everyday life and in Moon’s compositions, like the blue peony, found in Cheoyong and others. Traditional pink or white peonies represent luxury and wealth—the opposite of lotuses, which signify spirituality—but blue peonies don’t exist in nature, twisting the expectation of these signature shapes. In this spirit, another shifting character in her work is an inu-hariko, another symbol for good fortune, which looks like a cat, but is actually a dog found on traditional Japanese toys and sweets like Botan Rice Candy (botan means peony in Japanese). Therefore, these lush surfaces have deeper, changeable underpinnings, as the “true” identities of each figure fades in and out of focus.
- Excerpt from exhibition essay by Atlanta-based curator Stephanie Greene.
Jiha Moon lives and works in Atlanta, GA. Recent solo exhibitions include Turbulence Utopia, Mint Museum, Charolette, NC and Pleasant Purgatory, Brain Factory, Seoul, Korea. Selected group exhibitions include the One Way or Another, Asia Society and Museum, NY (traveling); Currents, Recent Acquisitions, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; Movement, Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA; Art on Paper Biennial, Weatherspoon Museum, NC. Selected artist residencies include Headlands Center for the Arts, Golden Foundation fellowship, Sausalito, CA; Art Omi International Artists Residency, Ghent, NY; and the Singapore Tyler Print Institute, artist residency awarded by Asia Society and Museum, New York, NY. Moon is currently an artist-in-residence at the Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadephia, PA.
SALTWORKS IN NYT
BECOME A FAN ON FACEBOOK
FOLLOW SALTWORKS ON TWITTER
SALTWORKS 664 11TH ST NW ATLANTA GA 30318. V404.881.0411.
WED-FRI 12-6. SAT 11-5.
INFO@SALTWORKSGALLERY.COM. WWW.SALTWORKSGALLERY.COM
JAN 16 Art Walk Schedule
January 4, 2010
Westside Arts District 3rd Saturday Art Walk
Saturday, January 16, 2010, 11am-5pm
ATLANTA – Saturday, January 16, 2010, The Westside Arts District will hold their monthly “3rd Saturday” art walk from 11am to 5pm.
Visit our website www.wadatlanta.org or contact us by email at wadatlanta@gmail.com.
Schedule of Events for the January Westside 3rd Saturday Art Walk:
ATLANTA CONTEMPORARY ART CENTER – Event 11am – 12pm, open 11am – 5 pm
Members, Free; General admission, $5; Students/Seniors, $3; Kids under 12, Free
535 Means Street, NW www.thecontemporary.org
Guest Lecture: Richard Flood
Richard Flood, Chief Curator at the New Museum in New York, discusses his projects at the New Museum and Walker Art Center, including solo exhibitions with Jeremy Deller, Matthew Barney, Robert Gober, and Sigmar Polke. This will be Flood’s first talk in Atlanta. This event is part of our Artist Survival Skills series.
BOBBE GILLIS GALLERY— Event @ 12:30pm – 1pm, open 10am – 4pm, FREE
1000 Marietta Street, Suite 108 www.gillisgallery.com
On January 16th, Bobbe Gillis Gallery will host the first in a series of lectures entitled, “Start with Art.” Bobbe Gillis, BFA in Interior Design, will lead a discussion through the process of finding a piece of art that you absolutely love and designing an entire room around it. This month’s featured artist will be Alisa Coffey. Alisa is a “green” artist. She uses found materials and repurposes them to create a modern masterpiece. The discussion will begin at 12:30pm and last approximately 20 minutes.
SANDLER HUDSON GALLERY– Event @ 1pm, open 11am-5pm, FREE
1009-A Marietta Street, NW, www.sandlerhudson.com
Susan Robert -Reductions, January 15 – February 20
Atlanta artist, Susan Robert will discuss her new body of work involving an investigation of art history icons. In these new paintings, Robert considers different aspects of various masterpieces, focusing her inquiry upon deconstruction, color field arrangement, and formatting the paintings into a modern grid like context.
KIANG GALLERY— Event 2pm – 3pm, open 11am – 5pm, FREE
1011-A Marietta Street, NW www.kiang-gallery.com
Artist talk: Hoang Van Bui
Kiang Gallery is pleased to present an installation of new prints, sculpture, and installation works by Vietnamese born American artist, Hoang Van Bui,. This will be his fourth solo show at the gallery, his first since 2004. Homefronts III: Born-Again, explores complex issues of culture and identity, combining traditional sculpting materials and gathered objects. Van-Bui coaxes meaning out of exquisitely rendered materials, based on culturally specific symbols, such as the navel, which to Vietnamese is the physical center of human emotion, much like the heart to Westerners, searching for the emotional ground he calls home. His process often forces incompatible materials into elegant harmonious compositions, reminding us that this is a poignant self –portrait.
Additional galleries open for viewing:
EMILY AMY GALLERY—open 11am – 5pm, FREE.
1000 Marietta Street, Suite 208 www.emilyamygallery.com
Winter Salon: Studies, Sketches, and Selections from the Flat Files
Emily Amy Gallery is pleased to present our winter salon featuring new small works, studies and works on paper from the current stable of gallery artists.
OCTANE COFFEE– open 8am – 10pm, FREE.
1009-B Marietta Street NW www.octanecoffee.com
Local Atlanta artist Kombo Chapfika showcases his unique perspective on ordinary life through colorful bricolages of abstracted backgrounds and figures resulting a modern, eclectic peices.
GET THIS! GALLERY— Closed for installation.
662 11th St. NW www.getthisgallery.com
“repose” new work and installation by Gyun Hur, opens January 23.
SALTWORKS— Closed for installation.
664 11th St. NW www.saltworksgallery.com
“Blue Peony and Impure Thoughts, new work by Jiha Moon” opens January 23.
ABOUT THE WESTSIDE ART WALK
The Westside Art Walk is a presentation of the Westside Arts District and occurs on the third Saturday of every month from 11am to 5pm, unless otherwise noted. This art-centric event is intended to encourage public interaction and education of visual art in the emerging art district in Atlanta’s Westside neighborhood. There is plenty of free parking at each venue, however, the public is encouraged to walk the approximately 1 mile route between member locations to view the exhibitions and, in many cases, attend a lecture or tour given by the art space. Events are free unless otherwise noted. Maps and exhibition information will be available at each location the day of the event. To join our email list please send an email to wadatlanta@gmail.com.
