제 1회 천경자 예술상 수상자로 문지하(Jiha Moon, 51) 작가가 선정됐다. 천경자 재단(이사장, 수미타 김 몽고메리대학 교수)이 제정한 천경자 예술상의 상금은 1만 달러로, 시상식은 12월 28일 버지니아주 타이슨스 소재 힐튼 호텔에서 열린다. 

 

문지하 작가는 대구에서 태어나 고려대 사범대 미술교육과, 이화여대와 아이오와대에서 미술 석사학위를 받았다. 2023년 구겐하임 펠로우로 선정됐으며, 현재 플로리다주립대의 조교수다.

 

문작가는 현재 뉴욕 다운타운의 데릭엘러갤러리(Derek Eller Gallery)에서 개인전 'Jiha Moon: Fool's Moon(10/25-12/21)'을 열고 있으며, 워싱턴 DC의 스미소니언 아메리칸아트뮤지엄(SAAM)에서 열리는 그룹전 '미국미술 권력의 형태(The Shape of Power in American Art, 11/8-9/14, 2025)에서 '타이거 바나나(Tiger Banana)'를 전시 중이다. 이 전시엔 이사무 노구치, 시몬 리 등 70여 작가의 작품 82점이 선보인다. 

 

 

Jiha Moon: Fool's Moon

 

October 25 – December 21, 2024  

Derek Eller Gallery (38 Walker St., Ground Fl.), New York

 

Shape of Heart, 2024, acrylic, silk, Hanji, found fabric, 22 x 31 inches

 

Derek Eller Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition of new sculptures and paintings by Jiha Moon. Borrowing imagery, forms, and materials from Asian folklore and traditions, contemporary popular culture, and Western art history, Moon creates a mashed-up globalized dialect that speaks to identity, cultural displacement, and miscommunication.

 

The ever-expanding vocabulary within Moon’s visual language takes some new and notable turns in this exhibition. She explains:

“The title Fool’s Moon comes from my childhood memories of making wishes while gazing at the full moon on Lunar New Year’s Day in Korea. During those moments, we hoped for good health and happiness in the days ahead. This ritual has become a habit for me, and every time I see the full moon, I engage in wishful thinking. It’s not religion, totemism, or witchcraft—but in some ways, it might be a little of all three.

 

I’m presenting acrylic paintings on Hanji paper, hybrid ceramic paintings, ceramic sculptures, and Korean Bojagi which are quilt painting collaborations I made with my 97-year-old grandmother. I incorporate iconic images, shapes, and colors to convey my wishful thinking during these chaotic times. The powerful Korean Haetae—a mythical hybrid creature—is reimagined as my silly, helpless poodles in a large painting on paper titled Blue Haetae. In my ceramic piece Banana Wreath, rotten banana peels symbolize the aging process, especially that of a woman’s skin, and I seek to glorify this transformation by using crystal glaze.

 

In Nocturne (American Beautyberry), I use banana peels as symbols of second-generation Asian Americans—pejoratively compared to bananas, yellow on the outside and white on the inside—who are taught by their elders to survive through assimilation. These figures are camouflaged within night scenes, accented with the hues of American beautyberry. Additionally, I reference the Korean drag queen Kimchi and Keanu Reeves, whose life quotes resonate deeply with me, borrowing their voices to tell my story.

 

In today’s vulnerable climate, I feel that we are all fools, clinging to hope and making wishes— sentiments I capture and reflect upon through the works in this exhibition.”

 

Jiha Moon (b. 1973) lives and works in Tallahassee, Florida. She received a BFA from Korea University, Seoul, an MFA from Ewha Woman’s University, Seoul, and an MFA from the University of Iowa. She is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Art at Florida State University, Tallahassee. Moon is a 2023 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellow in Fine Arts. Her work will be featured in the upcoming exhibition The Shape of Power: Stories of Race in American Sculpture at Smithsonian American Art Museum (November 2024). Moon has exhibited in museums and galleries internationally including the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, CA; Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC; FSU Museum of Fine Arts, Tallahassee, FL; Crystal Bridges Museum, Bentonville, AR; and The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, PA. Her work is in the collections of the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, CA; Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC; High Museum, Atlanta, GA; Asia Society and Museum, New York, NY; Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC; and Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, among many others. This will be her third solo exhibition at the gallery.

https://www.derekeller.com

 

 

The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture

 

November 8, 2024 – September 14, 2025

Smithsonian American Art Museum

 

Jiha Moon, Tiger Banana, 2023, stoneware, underglazem glaze, and synthetic hair. 

 

How does American sculpture intersect with the history of race in the United States?

 

The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture examines the role of sculpture in understanding and constructing the concept of race in the United States. The exhibition brings together 82 sculptures created between 1792 and 2023 and ranging in size from palm-sized coins to monumental statues created from diverse media such as bronze, marble, shoes, paper, and hair. Made by 70 different artists, these sculptures are displayed to allow for juxtapositions of historical and contemporary works that invite dialogue and reflection on notions of power and identity. American sculpture in its many forms also has served as an expression of resistance, liberation, and a vital means for reclaiming identity.

 

The exhibition draws extensively on works from SAAM’s collection, which is the largest collection of American sculpture in the world.

 

The exhibition and related book, published in association with Princeton University Press, contributes new scholarship to the understudied field of American sculpture, which hasn’t been the subject of a major publication survey in more than 50 years.

 

The Shape of Power is organized by Karen Lemmey, the Lucy S. Rhame Curator of Sculpture at the Smithsonian American Art Museum; Tobias Wofford, associate professor of art history at Virginia Commonwealth University; and Grace Yasumura, assistant curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.  

https://americanart.si.edu/exhibition/67675/sculpture-shape-of-power