Lunar New Year Exhibition: A Good Beginning, Here

Chung Kim, Kumjoo Ahn, Stephanie S. Lee, Yu-Whuan, Dong Hee Lee, Suejin Jo, Yan Nie, Xiangdong Shi

January 17th, 2020 - February 16th, 2020

Flushing Town Hall

Opening Reception: 1/17/2020 Friday, 6-8pm

Flushing, Unordered Rhythm by Xiangdong Shi

음력설(1월 25일)을 맞아 1월 17일부터 2월 16일 플러싱 타운홀(Flushing Town Hall)에서 한국, 중국, 일본 작가들의 그룹전 'A Good Beginning, Here'가 열린다.

참가 작가는 청 김(Chung Kim), 안금주(Kumjoo Ahn), 김소연(Stephanie S. Lee), Yu-Whuan, 이동희(Dong Hee Lee), 조수진(Suejin Jo), Yan Nie, Xiangdong Shi 등 8인이다. 이번 전시에는 동양에 뿌리를 두고 이곳에서 정착하며 피어난 작가들의 삶의 이야기들이 다양한 재료로 표현된 20 여점의 작품들이 소개된다. 

전시 기간 중  2월 9일(일요일) 오후 2시부터  스테파니 리 민화작가가 진행하는 '까치 호랑이 칠하기 워크숍'이 열릴 예정이다. 이 워크숍은 19세기 한국의 까치 호랑이 민화를 모사하며 새해 액운을 막고 행운을 기원하기 위해 마련됐다. 티켓은 $10 (멤버 $5) 청소년은 무료. 

A Good Beginning, Here

Chung Kim, Kumjoo Ahn, Stephanie S. Lee, Yu-Whuan, Dong Hee Lee, Suejin Jo, Yan Nie, Xiangdong Shi

Jan 17-Feb. 16, 2020

Flushing Town Hall

Opening Reception: 1/17/2020 Friday, 6-8pm

Gallery Hours: Saturday - Sunday 12 to 5pm, Weekdays by appointment

About the Exhibition: Lunar New Year is one of the most widely celebrated holidays in Flushing and many Asian countries. It’s a time for families and friends to get together. For many people who moved away from their hometown, it can also be a time to contemplate their relations with their roots. The time of the holiday also marks a turning point where the season returns from the bleakest and harshest winter days to a new period where lives are gradually brought back.

Celebrating the Lunar New Year with the community, Flushing Town Hall presents “A Good Beginning, Here” a cross-cultural exhibition that illuminates 8 diaspora artists who can trace their roots back to China, Korea, Japan, and Taiwan. Their works embody unique life stories and ideas rooted in the East yet evolved in the West.

More than 20 artworks from a wide array of visual styles, approaches, and mediums are on display in the gallery. Some artists find inspiration in traditional art techniques. We wish you a good beginning of the New Year.

About the Workshop: Tiger and magpie painting has been a prominent motif in Korean Folk Art (Minhwa). It’s known to keep away evil influences and bring good news. It’s a tradition to hang the painting on your front door at the beginning of the year. Taught by contemporary Minhwa artist Stephanie S. Lee, participants will paint 19th century Korean tigers and magpies to take home for New Year’s luck! $10/$5 Members & Children/FREE for Teens (Adults accompanying children must also pay for a ticket.)

Tiger and Magpie workshop sample by Stephanie S. Lee

Art Making Workshop: ‘Tiger & Magpie: Good Luck Painting from Korea’

Workshop Date: 2/9/2020 Sunday, 2pm

For ages 10 & up. $10/$5 Members, Students & Children/Free for Teens (supplies provided)

Artists: A Good Beginning, Here

Chung Kim

Chung Kim is an artist based in Somerset, New Jersey. He earned BFA at Hongik University in South Korea, and MFA at Maryland Institute College of Art, Rinehart School of Sculpture. Kim received awards from the sculpture contest by Seoul Daily News Paper and Jungang Daily Newspaper and invited to exhibit at Hoam Gallery in Seoul. Kim has been invited to many exhibitions internationally including Seoul City Art Museum, The Youth Art Museum in Seoul, Fine Arts Center in Seoul, and Bergen Community College. Korean traditional architecture retains a quiet elegance and attempts no ostentatious or majestic displays. The architecture contains subtle beauty and quiet dignity, yet presents strong confidence. Korean traditional furniture reflects the ambivalence of the architecture. 

Colors derived from nature, revealing the depth of passing years and can be never artificially or instantly produced. Without overwhelming the space and the human stature, the furniture embraces the history of a building and stand in the corner like a guardian of the house. Captivated by the shape of antique furniture and traditional Korean architecture from 19th century Korea, he’s been working with wood to create artwork to depict the tranquil beauty of Korea. Kim focuses on combining elegant curves and simple straight lines of old roofs and the rustic furniture to bring a modern sensibility to the ancient beauty.

While living in the U.S. as a diaspora artist, the freedom of expressing and representing inherited Korean culture comes more naturally where diverse cultures co-exist respectfully. He learned about other cultures and let the audience understand Korean culture with his artwork to narrow down the cultural gap between different cultures. He wishes to contribute further spread the refinement of Korean culture in our multicultural society through his work and seeks a peaceful and quiet moment to enjoy while persuing his journey.  https://furniartllc.wixsite.com/chungkim

Dong Hee Lee

Dong Hee Lee is an installation artist. She was born in Korea and currently lives and works in New York. She received both her BFA and MFA from Long Island University C.W. Post, NY. Lee has had ten solo shows and participated in many selected group exhibitions in USA, Korea, and Italy. She has received numerous reviews in the Washington Post, Times Ledger, Newsis, Korea Daily News, Hyperallergic, and many more. 

Lee’s work represents generative power and mysteries of our physical and spiritual realities. She uses hot glue as her primary material, which allows her to create the abstract organic forms of webs, clusters, and pouches. She uses abstract patterns and forms to evoke the drama and beauty of our invisible origins.

Dong Hee Lee believes that the human egg is the only perfectly spherical cell in the human body—a glowing, radiating organism. This image is symbolized in her work as a web of interconnected circles; each circle is carefully formed with molten glue and “drawn” using a glue gun. The synthetic glue material is shiny and pliant, like a cell membrane. Lee creates hundreds of these small, extruded circles in a process of accumulation that suggests gestation and the multiplication of cells. The combination of small repeating units become large, complex forms, either as sculptural objects or patterns on canvas. https://www.artistdongheelee.com

Kumjoo Ahn

Kumjoo Ahn is a Korean born textile artist of Bojagi (Korean wrapping cloth), Asian knots,hand-dyeing and traditional Korean hand-embroidery based in New Jersey. She studied at Kookmin University in South Korea, where she received a Master of Arts administration degree. Ahn learned traditional Korean hand-sewing and Bojagi from the National Museum of Seoul from 1994 to 2002.

Ahn had many exhibitions and workshops in the United States, France, Malaysia, New Zealand, and Korea. She performed workshops internationally in museums and public schools including Peabody Essex Museum, La Porte Peinte, Columbia University, Incheon Global Center, Seoul International Women’s Association. All her Bojagi works are hand-sewn and hand-embroidered. Some of the fabric is hand-dyed with plants and raw material of Asian medicine to get the best color combinations. She highlights the elegance of tradition in her contemporary textile artworks. Through exhibitions and workshops, Ahn wants to create a new, modern, and unique experience to the audience and to generate curiosity for all the viewers.  http://bojagiart.blogspot.com

Stephanie S. Lee

Stephanie S. Lee is an artist and a curator based in New York. She received her BFA from Pratt Institute and studied Korean Folk Art painting in Busan National University. She earned her MS at Pratt in Museums & Digital Culture with Advanced Certificate in Conservation and Digital Curation. She is currently working at the Godwin-Ternbach Museum. She had six solo exhibitions and was selected for many group exhibitions in public venues such as Edward Hopper House Art Center and Charles B. Wang Center. She has participated in art fairs including Scope Art Show and Affordable Art Fairs and her work has been awarded and reviewed by many media such as the Wall Street Journal and The Korean Times.

Lee reinterprets the traditional Korean Folk Art (Minhwa) by connecting it with modern perspective. Integrating Korean tradition with New York’s modern life, traditional and modern, old and new, east and west, material and ideal, all coexist harmoniously in her paintings. Lee thinks that people in modern day often confuse pursuit of happiness with materialistic desire. By portraying a luxurious, modern context in a traditional Korean setting, using Minhwa’s humorous aspects, Lee depicts the everlasting human desire—the pursuit of happiness—that transcends appearance, time, and era.

However, the luxurious goods and gems in her paintings are not to criticize materialism, but to symbolize and bring awareness to what we really seek in life beyond the materialistic substances. Lee further believes that our life journey is the interaction between this everlasting desire and its environment. Most of all, Lee wishes her paintings bring happiness to the viewers as the Korean Folk Art carries good virtue—wishing happiness, longevity, and peace. http://www.stephanieslee.com

Suejin Jo

Suejin Jo is a Korean born abstract painter based in New York, studied with Stamos and Vytlacil at the Art Students League where she won McDowell Fellowship juried by Richard Pousette D’art and Romare Bearden. One often finds dichotomy in Jo’s work such as delicate lines with a mass of color or in the theme “fish and cactus”.

Jo used to paint with a unique medium of oil and dry pigment using the process of “inlay” as Korean potters of the 11th century. Helen Harrison of The New York Times described Jo’s painting as having “the character of an ancient wall painting”. Jo won Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Solo Exhibition Award sponsored by the NY Artists Equity and

juried by DC Moore Gallery. Jo had many solo and group exhibitions around New York, Korea, Mexico, Italy and participated in Pool Art Fair, New York and Miami 2007, Manif 2008 in Seoul Korea, Scope with Chashama, AAF with Tria Gallery, KSK Fine Art, Julio Valdez Studio.

Jo’s work is in many private and public collections including the Library of Congress, Chase Manhattan Bank, Instrument Company, Embassy of San Marino, NAPABA Law Foundation, Sogang University, Ahl Foundation, 9/11 Memorial Museum, Art in General, Pan Cinema, Hyundai Construction, and Korea Exchange Bank. Jo’s paintings were

included in the US Embassy Exhibitions in East Timor and Mexico. US State Department chose Jo’s “Pontchartrain” to be included in the 2012 desk calendar, “Homage to American Women Artists”. http://www.suejinjo.com

Yu-Whuan

Yu-Whuan is a New York and Kyoto based artist. She studied art with Shimamoto Shozo, a pioneer of Gutai. In her early studies with Shozo, Yu-Whuan found herself freed to explore an open spirit of making art. Yu-Whuan also studied with the painters, Mr. Shen Zhe Zai and Mr. Zeng Pei Yao, as well as sculptor Yamamoto Kakuzi. She was a director of design in Taiwan.

Yu-Whuan studied contemporary painting and sculpture, and completed an independent art research project, at the Kyoto University of Education, Japan. She is a member of the Kyoto Sculptor Association. She has received a “MURASAKI” award for the 47th Kyoto Exposition and was the director of the PhilosophyBox gallery. She has had major public and select private exhibitions, internationally and in the U.S., with regular exhibitions in Kyoto and New York.

Yu-Whuan’s wide-ranging art explores the relationship between nature and culture in her sculpture, paintings, drawings, photographs, and installations. Her work, while bold and direct, includes mystery, gentle humor, and a philosophical aspect. Her process plays with the work of seeing, bringing a deft touch to potent human passions and dilemmas, in a manner that is akin to sunlight on a tree.  https://www.artsy.net/artist/yu-whuan-wang-1

Xiangdong Shi

Born in 1972 in Luoyang, Henan Province, China, Xiangdong Shi works and lives in New York and Beijing. He received a Bachelor degree from The Central Acadmy of Arts & Design and a Master degree in Public Arts from The Central Acadmy of Arts & Design. He earned Ph.D. in Public Arts and Fine Arts from The Acadmy of Arts & Design of Tsinghua University, China. He is currently working at the Bank of China’s head office and is a member of China Arts and crafts association.

In 2001, Shi designed the commemorative stamp of 21st International University Sports Federation invited by the State Post Bureau of China. His work has been published in the Monograph: “Beijing public art research”, Academic Press, 2005. He received many awards in Japan and China, including Hirayama Kaoruo prize, the Japan long Fuji international art award, the Central Academy of Fine Arts award, and Creative design group awards. His thesis “the cultural thinking of public art” won two prizes from the Academy of Fine Arts, Tsinghua University, China.

In his art, Shi focuses on his perception of things around. On his works featured in this exhibition, he depicted Flushing neighborhood using materials that are commonly he chose created a unique texture and also enriched the characteristics of Flushing. https://www.dongyanart.com

Yan Nie

Yan Nie is a Chinese contemporary expressionist painter. She was born in 1970 in Sichuan, China and currently working and living in both Bejing and New York. Nie graduated from the Department of Environmental Art in the Central Academy of Arts and Design, and received her master’s degree from Tsinghua University, majored in art research and investment. She is currently a member of the China Arts and Crafts Association, a member of China International Artists Association, and a member of the Chinese Women’s Painting Association.

Nie emphasis her inner comprehending in her paintings. Her works were selected as the ceremony of the Ministry of foreign affairs. Artwork ‘Ming’ was selected in 2013 China postcards for nationwide issues. In 2015, her artwork was published in the National Post stamps, and many of her works have been selected and published in the United States Postal stamps. In 2015, she was named ‘the outstanding Chinese in China and America’. In 2016, she was reported as one of the one hundred most popular calligraphers and painters by the China Enterprises News.

Many of her works are selected in the “Chinese Contemporary Art Literature”. And she has been invited to exclusive interview by the magazine ‘Art Worm’, a feature reported in Financial Times, Xinhua news agency, China News, Artron Net, Sohu Net, Zugo Net, Artnet, Chinese press network, Chinese news network, Chinese international news, and Phoenix International online. Nie’s works also published in Album of Famous Chinese Contemporary Artists, Gorgeous Section In The Prosper Times, Characters over the Five Continents, National Arts Festival, Global Calligraphy, Soul of the Chinese Military, Figures of The Times, and Pictorial of International Knowledge. Over 20 of Nie’s works were collected by domestic and foreign galleries, institutions, and private collectors.  https://www.dongyanart.com