Detourist

Saltworks Gallery, Atlanta, GA
April 14 - May 25, 2012

Opening Reception:
Saturday, April 14, 7-10 PM

image
Storyteller, 2011
Ink, acrylic, fabric, embroidery patches on Hanji, 25 x 37.5"

SALTWORKS is pleased to present Detourist, our third solo exhibition of Atlanta-based artist Jiha Moon. Moon’s floating landscapes are shifting cultural narratives, playfully blending symbols, materials and techniques to slow down the viewer’s impulse to assume meaning and sometimes mislead by highlighting popular misconceptions or “shortcuts”. Her dynamic paintings skillfully integrate color, mark making, material and iconic imagery to examine the impermanence of cultural identity. In Detourist, Moon cites influences from a variety of origins, ranging from 13th century Taoist painting, American Pop artists, Walt Disney, Dr. Seuss, emoticons to Asian restaurant menus.

Through these works, Moon asks the question: Is the feeling of authenticity only experienced by the tourist? And how does this feeling shift when we see more and know more? Moon understands the influence of appearance and the natural impulse to assign assumptions to the familiar. Working from this knowledge, Moon layers colors, marks, and materials camouflaging their attributes to create multiple meanings and hybrid origins; the works have an unexpectedness of a new world. Using popular symbols to create her mishmash identities, Moon pushes the fast interpretation of the fantastic and nonsense to challenge common misinterpretations. In addition to the paintings and two mixed media works from her 2010 residency at the Fabric Workshop and Museum, Moon has created two installations - Flag and Sack, a wall mounted series of patchwork flags with a crafted resemblance to social and national groups, and Detour, an assemblage of prints and direct screen printing on the wall creating a whimsical display of imagery taken from western fortune cookies.

Jiha Moon is a 2011 recipient of the prestigious Joan Mitchell Foundation Award. She has solo exhibitions at the Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC; Cheekwood Museum of Art, Nashville, TN and Rhodes College, Clough-Hanson Gallery, Memphis, TN. She has been featured in group exhibitions at the Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, PA; The Drawing Center, New York, NY; Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA; Asia Society, New York, NY and the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta, GA. Moon’s work is included in numerous public collections including the Asia Society, New York, NY; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA and the Weatherspoon Museum of Art, Greensboro, NC among others.

Springfield

Arario Gallery Seoul Samcheong
February 1 - March 3, 2012

Arario Gallery

Arario Gallery Seoul Samcheong is pleased to present the opening of Springfield, a solo exhibition by American-based artist Jiha Moon, on February 1st 2012. Currently residing in Atlanta, US, Jiha Moon (born in 1973) is one of representative Korean artists with a thriving art practice in America. Springfield presents over 30 various experimental works the artist has produced in the last three years, and has immense significance as the artist’s first solo show in Korea

www.arariogallery.com

Jiha Moon Wins Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant - Washington City Paper, December 2011

by Kriston Capps, Dec. 28, 2011

Atlanta–based painter Jiha Moon nabbed a $25,000 grant from the Joan Mitchell Foundation—bringing a big win home for the District.

Moon doesn't live in D.C., but her work appears at Curator's Office, and her roots in the city and community run deep. In 2005, she won the $10,000 Trawick Prize, an annual award for artists in the Washington area, and garnered rave reviews for "Symbioland," a solo show that opened at Curator's just days after the award ceremony. (Here are still more.)

Her fourth solo show at Curator's Office will take place in 2012. In the meantime, Curator's Office director Andrea Pollan will be accompanying Moon to Seoul for a solo exhibition at Arario Gallery, for which Pollan has written the catalog text.

So the District still claims Moon as a favorite daughter. Elsewhere, excellent examples of her work—which span media as well as influences—have appeared at Philadelphia's Fabric Workshop and Museum and New York's Drawing Center, among national and international galleries and institutions.

washingtoncitypaper.com

2011 Joan Mitchell Foundation Award

Jiha is a recipient of 2011 Joan Mitchell Foundation award.

The Joan Mitchell Foundation celebrates the legacy of Joan Mitchell and expands her vision to support the aspirations and development of diverse contemporary visual artists. They work to broaden the recognition of artists and their essential contributions to communities and society.

joanmitchellfoundation.org

Our Yasu

installation & collaborative works by Rachel Hayes & Jiha Moon

ADA Gallery, Richmond, Virginia
September 17 - October 29, 2011

Opening Saturday
September 17th, 7-9pm imgage ADA gallery is pleased to announce new collaborative works by installation artist Rachel Hayes and painter Jiha Moon. Jiha's gestural marks and seductive imagery are painted on, and embedded in, Rachel's sculptural panels that are sewn from fabric and Korean mulberry paper. Rachel's use of shiny swatches of colorful fabric contrast nicely with Jiha's soft fuzzy brush strokes as they attempt to tame the wild beast they envision their collaboration to be. Yasu means "Beast" in Korean, therefore "Our Yasu" is a tribute to their team effort.

With separate studios in Kansas City, Brooklyn, and Atlanta, there is a great deal of negotiation and compromise necessary as they construct and deconstruct work before meeting face to face onsite to create their installations. Hayes and Moon have been working together since meeting in 2007 at the Art Omi residency in New York. Their first collaborative effort, "Outflow" was featured in the group exhibition "More Mergers & Acquisitions" curated by Stuart Horodner at The Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, 2009. They followed this with a large work entitled "Chutes and Tears" at The Lab Gallery in New York last April, a grand landscape of fabric and paint which unfolded and revealed itself as one walked past the corner window gallery. This work featured the use of recycled blue jeans, which were collected, shredded, often bleached, and reassembled into curtain-like forms creating cascades and shelters. For their exhibition at ADA gallery, the team will site specifically re-install "Chutes and Tears".

Jiha has finished her recent project with The Fabric workshop and Museum and was in four person show at The Fabric workshop and museum in Philladelphia this past spring 2011. Rachel had her fellowship exhibition at Saint-Gaudens national historic site in Cornish, NH in 201o and is getting ready for her one year residency at Mary Walsh Sharpe foundtion in Brooklyn this September, 2011.

This is Jiha and Rachel's third collaborative exhibition and debut exhibition at ADA gallery as a team.

Chutes&Tears
Chutes & Tears at the LAB gallery NYC, 2011

Our Yasu will feature a new installation as well as many new wall pieces.

This exhibition will run from September 17 - October 29, 2011

gallery hours: Wednesday - Saturday noon - 5pm.

for more information and images contact john pollard at info@adagallery.com

www.adagallery.com

ADA gallery, 228 West Broad Street, Richmond, Virginia 23220 © COPYRIGHT ADA GALLERY 2011

The Letter Shin

Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, Virginia
September 16 - October 29, 2011

Opening Reception
Friday, September 16, 7 - 9 pm

Artist's Talk
Saturday, September 17, 1 pm

image
Jiha Moon, The Letter Shin, 2011, ink, acrylic, embroidery, fabric on Hanji paper, 59 x 59 inches

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Jiha Moon, Swoosh, 2011, ink, acrylic, glitter on Hanji paper, 28 x 39 1/2 inches