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Friday, March 29, 2024

Mon Artizen group mounts sixth exhibit at artistspace

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Women in traditional and conservative Korean society rein in their emotions and speak in hushed, gentle tones with conversations marked by periods of silence. From this society has emerged a group of women painters who have found their distinct and collective artistic voice in the Philippines. This voice – distinctly Korean in timbre and surprisingly audacious – is none other than the Mon Artizen group, founded by three intrepid ladies who embarked on a journey from “The Land of the Morning Calm” to the Philippines in 1998. Bonded by a common passion for the arts, having obtained formal art education from sterling art academies in South Korea, Carla Kim (Hyesook Jang), Sojung Lee and Miae Jung, began holding art sessions and mounting mini art exhibitions at least once a year to express their shared creativity.

CHRISTINA CHO  'Sunflower Field'  Oil on Canvas, 36 x 73 cm 

Since then, the group’s once exclusive painting sessions have expanded to include Filipina painters, with the group now numbering 12, with Mon Artizen encouraging individuals to create art and have a great time communicating and enriching their view of the world with fellow members. The group welcomes all ladies who are interested in learning how to paint.

MIAE JUNG  'Self-Portrait'  Oil on Canvas, 38 x 33 cm
MIYOUNG JANG  'Rest'  Oil on Canvas, 45 x 55 cm

The artists of Mon Artizen have mounted a collective exhibition titled “Paintings That Speak, Poems With No Sound” in collaboration with the ArtistSpace of the Ayala Museum. The exhibition, which opened last March 17 and runs until the 31st, showcases loud and vibrant canvasses depicting unorthodox still life of floral and domestic arrangements, unexpected vistas of foreign architecture (mostly sun-drenched) landscapes and seascapes captured from privileged sojourns, and eye-catching patterns that mimic the immediate and natural environment. 

YOONAH SEO  'Part 1'  Oil on Canvas, 55 x 120 cm

Inspired by a diverse array of mostly autobiographical influences such as personal experiences of culture and nature as well as internal catharsis, every work in the exhibition tells of stories and serve as mute poems on the lives of the women painters of Mon Artizen. Composed through the group’s own brand of artistic freedom, the canvases are painted in the most colorful and expressive way possible, sometimes to the point of irreverence. They may be unusually outspoken but all works bear design elements that are distinctly Korean.

CARLA KIM   'Lady in Mangos'  Oil on Board, 25 x 45 cm

The 12 women painters of Mon Artizen hail from South Korea and the Philippines, and they are Carla J. Kim also known as Hyesook Jang (poetic still life); Sojung Lee (scaled illusions); Sungjoo Kang (clothed ambiguities); Jacqueline Lhuiller Hess (surprising sojourns); Miae Jung (magical landscapes); Yoonah Seo (rainbow cities); Christina Cho (rare vantage points);  Mi Young Jang (wispy impressions); Hyang Ran Han (untold stories in details); Shin Young Park (emotional still life); Eunyoung Jung (rhythm and repetition); and Sunghye Yoon (stony stories).

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Mon Artizen is proof that neither cultural norms nor distance from one’s home country are impediments in expressing creativity and pursuing one’s passions. By continuously and bravely creating art that are true to themselves and their reflection of the world, the members of Mon Artizen will grow and create art marked by boldness, audacity and authenticity.

ArtistSpace is at the Ground Level, Ayala Museum Annex, Makati Avenue corner De La Rosa Street, Greenbelt Park, Makati City. For more information, you may contact Lorraine Datuin at (02) 759-8288 or email artistspace@ayalafoundation.org.

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