Sunday, May 30, 2021

Sculpture Magazine REVIEW by B. Amore

 



Andy Moerlein, Elegy for the Earth, 2021. Hardwood limbs, expanded polystyrene, and paint, 72 x 72 x 84 in. Photo: Brian Wilson 

 

Boston

Boston Sculptors Gallery

To walk into Andy Moerlein’s “wood stone poem” (on view through June 6, 2021) is to enter a magical space, filled with fanciful and ecstatic forms stretching out in welcome. A three-foot-tall, 60-year-old Ficus retusa bonsai from Taiwan at the entrance to the exhibition offers a clue to Moerlein’s recent explorations, which continue his longtime interest in Asian art and poetry. His current research involves the study of bonsai, miniature trees nurtured in containers, grafted and pruned into living sculptures. These ideas have almost organically extended into his wood sculptures, as forms and materials conjoin in indecipherable ways.

In Elegy for the Earth, three iridescent blue, over-life-size gestural forms reminiscent of trees rise from the ground. The central element supports a large artist-constructed “stone.” Moerlein writes: “Will the trees forgive us? Will the stones care?” A reference, perhaps, to future thoughts about what is transpiring in the ecological world today. The three swaying forms recall figures moving in step, in a procession. 


  Distilling the Essence of stone. 2021. 10’h x 7’ x 14’. Mixed media.  Photo: Brian Wilson

 

The central installation, Distilling the Essence of Stone, relates to aspects of the physical world that we barely consider. It is an active meditation on the fact that stones paradoxically contain water, that stones under extreme pressure become diamonds, and that mineral earth contains all time. Multiple reflections on the state of our environment inevitably enter the consciousness. Two tall Sentinel figures guard the colorful, mixed-media flow emanating from a levitating stone in this fascinating sculptural expression that defies categorization.

Object, 2021. 20”h x 10” x 13”. Spalted pearwood, black walnut, maple limbs.

 

The diminutive Object continues the theme of movement. With joined, open “legs” and a leaning “body,” it seems an abstraction that stands in for a figure—although at the pinnacle, there is a tiny evocation of a scholar’s stone, which certainly enhances the mystery of the piece. References to scholar’s stones also appear in Moerlein’s more familiar stacked pieces, both large and small, influenced by the nature of water shaping stone. Some appear to be hybrids of scholar’s stones and bonsai; all are skillfully carved, constructed, and sensitively colored. 

 


  Snagged 2021. 75”h x 36” x 55”. Oak, cherry, wire, hooks Photo: Brian Wilson 

In Snagged—one of the most fanciful sculptures—a six-foot-high, luminescent violet spiral opens into a wide, graceful circle. Three-pronged fish hooks (attached by light wire) “dance” into space, punctuating the surrounding field of energy. Rooted in a solid base reminiscent of Moerlein’s constructed and carved scholar’s stone sculptures, Snagged is a poem in motion. The shadow it casts against the wall functions like a partner.


Michael Levin Bonsai Tree loaned by Bonsai West Littleton MA

This Bonsai is an old Ficus Retusa imported originally from Taiwan. Taiwan is famous for their old refined Ficus bonsai and trees of this size are now impossible to import. As you can see, it is a triple trunk (clump style) and the side branches were perfectly grafted decades ago. The tree was originally started from a cutting in the 1960's.

 

These new works, inspired by Moerlein’s fascination with bonsai forms, take his work to an entirely different level. To share his interest, he invited artists working in other media, noted scholars, and writers to participate in a dialogue with his sculptures. (Opening night featured presentations by Michael Levin, a bonsai master gardener, and Mary Graham, a landscape painter who has cultivated bonsai for several decades.) Basho’s haiku, which offer a unique view of a familiar scene or experience, definitely come into play here. “wood stone poem” is a fitting title for an expert and enticing blending of the obdurate and the ephemeral, in the hands of a master sculptor.

Wednesday, May 26, 2021

Boston Globe Art Review

 ART REVIEW

Artists call upon the ancients at Boston Sculptors Gallery

By Cate McQuaid Globe Correspondent,Updated May 25, 2021, 12:01 p.m.
A view of Donna Dodson's "Amazons Among Us" show at Boston Sculptors Gallery.
A view of Donna Dodson's "Amazons Among Us" show at Boston Sculptors Gallery.DONNA DODSON

Donna Dodson and Andy Moerlein’s sculptures kindle an ancient reverence for nature. Dodson’s work echoes the sacred totems of societies attuned to the earth’s cycles, threats, and gifts. Moerlein approaches the sublime through sticks and stones. The artists, who are married, collaborate on public art projects as the Myth Makers. They also work individually, and now each has a show at Boston Sculptors Gallery.

The four wooden icons in Dodson’s “Amazons Among Us” nod to Albrecht Dürer’s engraving “The Four Horsemen” from “The Apocalypse” series. She bases these female figures on mythological women warriors in Africa, India, ancient Greece and Rome, and on her own great-aunt Alice, a soldier in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps during World War II. They have the heads of beasts and the bodies of sturdy women, inscribed with tattoos with mythic meaning.


Donna Dodson's "Alpha Female," 2020.
Donna Dodson's "Alpha Female," 2020.BRIAN WILSON/COURTESY DONNA DODSON

Unlike Dürer’s threatening quartet, who hurtle toward societal destruction, these figures are rock steady and proud. They hold the space for work about women warriors by other artists Dodson has invited. It’s like a chapel dedicated to ferocious protection and love.

Moerlein also welcomes other artists into dialogue with the works in his show — poems, art, and bonsai that reflect his questions about how to partner with the earth. His pieces, large and small, say so much on their own.

Andy Moerlein's "Elegy for the Earth, 2021.
Andy Moerlein's "Elegy for the Earth, 2021.BRIAN WILSON/COURTESY ANDY MOERLEIN

He was inspired by the ancient Chinese practice of placing a stone on a pedestal for contemplation. In addition to rocky shapes he fashions himself, he showcases wood, calling to mind the strict yet wild formality of a bonsai garden. In “Elegy for the Earth” a stone form painted audacious peach flies cloudlike above a trio of blue-painted branches that rise and arc as if wind-whipped.

Moerlein sets a gorgeous chunk of spalted rock maple on a painted plywood base, creating tension in “Seeking Vein — Finding Heart.” Deliciously twisty and rutted, both read like mountain landscapes. The maple is natural and unpainted; the plywood is engineered and covered in red, green, and yellow. Yet one mirrors the other. As all Moerlein’s works do, it reminds viewers that we are one with and reflect the natural world. Whether we like it or not.



Andy Moerlein's "Seeking Vein – Finding Heart," 2021.
Andy Moerlein's "Seeking Vein – Finding Heart," 2021.BRIAN WILSON/COURTESY ANDY MOERLEIN

DONNA DODSON: AMAZONS AMONG US

ANDY MOERLEIN: WOOD STONE POEM

At Boston Sculptors Gallery, 486 Harrison Ave., through June 6. 617-482-7781, www.bostonsculptors.com


Cate McQuaid can be reached at catemcquaid@gmail.com. Follow her on Twitter @cmcq

Spring News & FINAL WEEKS wood stone poem

It has been an exciting spring. Note events on 5/27, 6/3, 6/4 & 6/5

On View only through 6/6 at Boston Sculptors Gallery:

wood stone poem
Meditations on the Natural
 

Distilling Essence of Stone, 2021, 10’ x 7’ x 14,’. mixed media. Photo by Brian Wilson.
See a GALLERY of the show HERE.
 
Events in Conjunction with wood stone poem
Wen-hao Tien, Laundry Rocks

 Andy Moerlein, Seeking Vein Finding Heart


Thursday, May 27, 7pm

The Significance of Stone

Featured Guest Artist Wen-hao Tien and Andy Moerlein discuss their fascination with the collection and display of stones and how contemporary artists engage ancient traditions to create work that addresses today's world. 

Wen-hao Tien is a visual artist, speaker, and educator. Her studio practice focuses on language and translation, and explores culture and identity through a cross-cultural lens.

 





Mountain Hemlock by Michael Hagedorn


Thursday, June 3, 8pm

The Philosophy & Practice of Cultivation



Craig Yee, Founding Director of Ink Studio and Michael Hagedorn, Bonsai Master will talk with Andy Moerlein about the study they engage in, and the life discoveries that are made in the act of cultivation.
 
Craig L. Yee is a founding Director of Ink Studio, a Beijing-based gallery and experimental art space. He is the author of contemporary ink monographs including: The Phenomenology of Life (2014); Impulse, Matter, Form; and Carving the Unconscious. Mr. Yee has also played a central editorial role in university and museum research projects on classical and modern Chinese painting.
 
Michael Hagedorn’s bonsai work bridges tradition and innovative design. He apprenticed with bonsai master Shinji Suzuki in Obuse, Japan, and has authored: The Schooling of an Irreverent Bonsai Monk’ and the offbeat educational book ‘Bonsai Heresy: 56 Myths Exposed Using Science & Tradition’. Michael is the Bonsai Consultant for the Portland Japanese Garden, a teacher at his garden Crataegus Bonsai, and blogs weekly at crataegus.com.
 
 *******************************

Special event:

Interpretive Musical Compositions

 

(ongoing during gallery hours)

 

 

In a unique collaboration between Boston Sculptors Gallery artist Andy Moerlein and Berklee College of Music faculty Joo Park PhD, student music compositions will be paired with sculptures by Mr. Moerlein and be played in accompaniment with the exhibition.

 

Dr. Park proposed that her students study Moerlein’s art and write a composition that suited a particular piece. These original compositions can be privately enjoyed in the gallery. Park noted: “Creating our musical interpretations around the imagery in Andy Moerlein’s artworks has been an inspiring and profound experience for all of us.”


**********************************
 
Saturday June 5th Join The Myth Makers: Donna Dodson & Andy Moerlein for an artists Meet and Greet at the Tower Hill Botanic Garden 2-4pm. Timed Tickets Required Write me for a limited number of free entries. 
*******************************

The Myth Makers have been WORKING AGAIN! Follow us to the Alaska Botanic Garden for a two week artists residency. We are producing two monumental new works from native Anchorage saplings.

For the Atlanta Botanic Garden in Gainesville Georgia, The Myth Makers: Donna Dodson & Andy Moerlein created a new sculpture, Flannery’s Peacock, and loaned a pair of existing cardinals, “Love Long Last” for the Myth Maker’s debut in Georgia. 

The Phoenix Festival was commissioned by the Bloomberg Philanthropies Public Art Challenge for A New View Camden.

The Caterpillar Crawl and the Butterfly Frolic were commissioned by Tower Hill Botanic Garden's summer sculpture event, Wild Hideaways: Designed for Adventure (see invitation above to meet and greet!)

ART REVIEW

Artists call upon the ancients at Boston Sculptors Gallery

By Cate McQuaid Globe Correspondent,Updated May 25, 2021, 12:01 p.m.
A view of Donna Dodson's "Amazons Among Us" show at Boston Sculptors Gallery.
A view of Donna Dodson's "Amazons Among Us" show at Boston Sculptors Gallery.DONNA DODSON

Donna Dodson and Andy Moerlein’s sculptures kindle an ancient reverence for nature. Dodson’s work echoes the sacred totems of societies attuned to the earth’s cycles, threats, and gifts. Moerlein approaches the sublime through sticks and stones. The artists, who are married, collaborate on public art projects as the Myth Makers. They also work individually, and now each has a show at Boston Sculptors Gallery.

The four wooden icons in Dodson’s “Amazons Among Us” nod to Albrecht Dürer’s engraving “The Four Horsemen” from “The Apocalypse” series. She bases these female figures on mythological women warriors in Africa, India, ancient Greece and Rome, and on her own great-aunt Alice, a soldier in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps during World War II. They have the heads of beasts and the bodies of sturdy women, inscribed with tattoos with mythic meaning.


Donna Dodson's "Alpha Female," 2020.
Donna Dodson's "Alpha Female," 2020.BRIAN WILSON/COURTESY DONNA DODSON

Unlike Dürer’s threatening quartet, who hurtle toward societal destruction, these figures are rock steady and proud. They hold the space for work about women warriors by other artists Dodson has invited. It’s like a chapel dedicated to ferocious protection and love.

Moerlein also welcomes other artists into dialogue with the works in his show — poems, art, and bonsai that reflect his questions about how to partner with the earth. His pieces, large and small, say so much on their own.

Andy Moerlein's "Elegy for the Earth, 2021.
Andy Moerlein's "Elegy for the Earth, 2021.BRIAN WILSON/COURTESY ANDY MOERLEIN

He was inspired by the ancient Chinese practice of placing a stone on a pedestal for contemplation. In addition to rocky shapes he fashions himself, he showcases wood, calling to mind the strict yet wild formality of a bonsai garden. In “Elegy for the Earth” a stone form painted audacious peach flies cloudlike above a trio of blue-painted branches that rise and arc as if wind-whipped.

Moerlein sets a gorgeous chunk of spalted rock maple on a painted plywood base, creating tension in “Seeking Vein — Finding Heart.” Deliciously twisty and rutted, both read like mountain landscapes. The maple is natural and unpainted; the plywood is engineered and covered in red, green, and yellow. Yet one mirrors the other. As all Moerlein’s works do, it reminds viewers that we are one with and reflect the natural world. Whether we like it or not.



Andy Moerlein's "Seeking Vein – Finding Heart," 2021.
Andy Moerlein's "Seeking Vein – Finding Heart," 2021.BRIAN WILSON/COURTESY ANDY MOERLEIN

DONNA DODSON: AMAZONS AMONG US

ANDY MOERLEIN: WOOD STONE POEM

At Boston Sculptors Gallery, 486 Harrison Ave., through June 6. 617-482-7781, www.bostonsculptors.com


Cate McQuaid can be reached at catemcquaid@gmail.com. Follow her on Twitter @cmcq

Tuesday, April 27, 2021

wood stone poem



Meditations on The Natural by Andy Moerlein

May 5 – June 6, 2021

 

Featuring:  Guest Artists Mary Graham, Wen-hao Tien and JooLee Kang

 

On Wednesday 5/5 at 5pm painter Mary Graham and Michael Levin will join me in a short gallery talk to open the exhibit*.
Please RSVP for entry to this limited audience event.
25 max. Masks required, social distance expected.

The Art of Bonsai - Bonsai in Art
This will be a fascinating conversation. Mary Graham and Michael Levin are both Bonsai practitioners. Mary is a painter whose style evokes the Chinese landscape paintings she adores, but often in oil, and composed in the authentic topography of NH's White Mountains. Mary has cultivated trees for years and has gradually expanded her enthusiasm to include on her property "a house of their own." Michael is a lifelong Bonsai enthusiast who turned his passion into an iconic business. Bonsai West in Acton MA, is a national treasure of Bonsai knowledge and ancient trees, as well as quality starter trees. Michael began his studies during travels to California where he was introduced to Japanese elders who continued their tree cultivation even through the internment of Japanese Americans in the United States during World War II 1945-1947. Michael was gifted some of those trees and continues to protect and cherish this heritage. The tree on loan** is exceptional at over 60 years old. ONLY May 5-9.

Both Mary and Michael were invited to join the exhibit with scant understanding of what my new work for this show will look like. It will be a thrilling conversation.

Also opening at Boston Sculptors Gallery:
Donna Dodson
Amazons Among Us
Featuring guest artists Trina Baker, Kledia Spiro & poet Melchor Hall

From 5:30 - 7 both Donna Dodson and Andy Moerlein and the featured guest artists will conduct personal gallery walks and conversations. Timed entry can be arranged by invitation.
 
 

*All Events will be recorded and posted: andymoerlein.com

 ** Courtesy of Bonsai West, Littleton, MA.

 

Other Special events in conjunction with this show:

First Friday opening May 7th 5p-8p & June 4th 5p-8p

 

The Art of Bonsai -- Bonsai in Art. May 5, 5 pm

Sijo Contest Poetry Reading.  May 15th, 3pm

The Significance of Stone. May 27th, 7pm

The Philosophy and Practice of Cultivation.

June 3rd, 8 pm

 

 

 

On view May 5 to June 6, 2021, Andy Moerlein’s exhibition wood stone poem considers ancient traditions of reverence for nature. While contemporary culture is confident of our dominance, the pandemic has laid bare the global impact of natural forces beyond our control. As we grapple with our persistent pursuit of comfort and relentless consumption, is it possible to be a gentle partner on this earth? Moerlein’s sculptures invite meditations on The Natural.

 

The works featured are inspired by Moerlein’s fascination with ancient practice of collecting and displaying unusual and often awkward stones. Brought indoors and placed on pedestals, these stones (Scholars Rocks, Viewing Stones) are transformed into icons of personal or imagined journeys. These rocks have influenced philosophers and artists for thousands of years.

 

New to this exhibition are Moerlein’s tree forms. Eccentrically shaped sensual limbs entangle, embrace and support the artist’s “handmade” stones. Reminiscent of the choreographic balance of bonsai cultivation, these constrained and designed forms are both delightful and unsettlingly unnatural. Moerlein’s work shifts between a sense of complete control, and the awkward realization that things are totally wrong in his world.

 

Wood stone poem Meditations on The Natural by Andy Moerlein runs concurrently with Donna Dodson: Amazons Among Us. All events are free and open to the public with COVID -19 precautions in place.

Monday, October 26, 2020

A Talk Thursday Oct 29th 5p.m.EST

Sign in for the live event.

 "Portals: Collecting and Interpreting Evocative Rocks" Thursday Oct 29th with Dr. Thomas Elias, Founder of the Viewing Stone Association of North America, who will lend one of his Korean viewing stones to the show, Dr. Virginia Moon, Associate Curator of Korean Art at LACMA and two artists in the show: Andy Moerlein and Elisa Pritzker. This talk will focus on the art of stone collecting, both as an historic tradition and as a contemporary practice.  Why contemporary artists have translated this aesthetic into new art forms and how each individual rock speaks about a larger landscape will be addressed in this talk.

http://www.koreanculture.org/gallery-korea/2020/10/14/collecting-and-interpreting-evocative-rocks

My beech piece is featured in the Artnet News Editors Picks:

Wednesday, October 21–November 30

Andy Moerlein, Pale Wave (2020). Photo courtesy of the artist.

Andy Moerlein, Pale Wave (2020). Photo courtesy of the artist.

9. “Interpreting the Natural: Contemporary Visions of Scholars’ Rocks” at the Korean Cultural Center, New York

Contemporary artists present work in a wide range of materials, all inspired by Asian scholars’ rocks—whether it be the distinct traditions of Korea’s Suseok (of Parasite fame), Japan’s Suiseki, or China’s Gongshi. Expect ceramic sculptures by Laura Cannamela, wood carvings from Andy Moerlein, and even digital explorations by the form Furen Dai, to name just a few artists in this group show curated by Donna Dodson.

Location: Korean Cultural Center New York, 460 Park Avenue 6th Floor, New York
Price: Free with timed appointment

—Tanner West

More about the show:

Interpreting the Natural: Contemporary Visions of Scholars’ Rocks
Gallery Korea, Korean Cultural Center, 460 Park Ave 6th Fl NY NY
Exhibition Dates: October 21 - November 30, 2020

Reserve your visit online Tues, Wed, Thurs 10:30a-4p


Online Conversation Series: All events are free and open to the public. Visit www.koreanculture.org for more info.
October 29 (Thurs) @ 5pm "Portals- Collecting and Interpreting Evocative Rocks" with Dr. Thomas Elias, Founder of the Viewing Stone Association of North America, who will lend one of his Korean viewing stones to the show, Dr. Virginia Moon, Associate Curator of Korean Art at LACMA and two artists featured in the show: Andy Moerlein and Elisa Pritzker.

November 10 (Tues) @ 5pm "Nature’s Representation, Interpretation and Enculturation in Viewing Stones" with Dr. Kevin Greenwood, Joan L. Danforth Curator of Asian Art at the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College, Dr. Yao Wu, Jane Chace Carroll Curator of Asian Art at the Smith College Museum of Art, and two artists featured in this show, Laura Cannamela and JooLee Kang.

November 13 (Fri) @ 5pm - "Strange Bedfellows: How Found Objects, Mineralogy and Ancient Viewing Stones Deliver a Relevant Messagewith Dr. Kyunghee Pyun, art historian and faculty at the Fashion Institute of Technology (see her recent interview about the Suseok in Parasite in Artnet), Dr. Aida Yuen Wong, art historian and faculty at Brandeis University, and two artists featured in the show: Furen Dai and Woomin Kim

November 16 (Mon) @ 5pm - "Presentation, Arrangement and Displaywith Special guests: Jan Stuart, Melvin R. Seiden Curator of Chinese Art, National Museum of Asian Art, Craig Yee, Founder of Ink Studio in Beijing, with Susan Meyer, and Christopher Frost, two artists featured in the show.

 

Korean Cultural Center in New York presents Interpreting the Natural: Contemporary Visions of Scholars’ Rocks, annual “Call for Artists 2020” group exhibition by Gallery Korea. This year’s artists and curators have diverse cultural backgrounds from Korea, China, Japan, Argentina, and the USA. This group show will feature ten artists:Laura Cannamela, Mark Cooper, Furen Dai, Christopher Frost, JooLee Kang, Woomin Kim, Susan Meyer, Andy Moerlein, Laura Moriarty, Elisa Pritzker and curator Donna Dodson.
Interpreting the Natural: Contemporary Visions of Scholars’ Rocks shows recent artwork by each artist is shown in dialogue with an authentic Scholar's stone from the Thomas Elias and Hiromi Nakaoji collection and the collection of Kemin Hu. 

   
This contrast of traditional scholars’ rocks with contemporary interpretations will create a dynamic that encourages reflection on our enduring relationship with nature. As we confront the current pandemic, and respond to the imbalance challenging our global society, we seek contemporary art that is able make sense of the current time. 
Stone collecting is a universal human pastime. Throughout Asia, scholars have cultivated distinct traditions: in Korea, Suseok; in Japan, Suiseki; in China, Gongshi. The most prized “bones of the earth” were created by water or wind carving away the geological structure until only the essence is left behind. These unique stones were understood by Daoist practitioners as icons of harmony with nature. As the stones were passed from generation to generation, they signified an authentic connection to the landscape and an aesthetic reminder of that spiritual connection. 

An appreciation of these stones came to represent cultural value for Korean, Chinese and Japanese collectors. With new affluence came increased demand for such ancestral heritage. Merchants would often find or carve natural stones and sell them in the marketplace. Commercial availability enhanced their popularity. With the rise of new wealth in Korea and China in the past 50 years, scholars’ rocks have become more sought after. They signify a connection to the ancient past, and they express the collector’s prosperity and hopes for the future.
Today, scholars’ rocks continue to resonate with viewers. The surge of interest in scholars’ rocks or viewing stones in the art world, and in pop culture, such as in the movie Parasite, can be understood as a response to things being out of balance with nature, the environment, and society. The artists in this show are all responding to this moment, where a reverence for rocks and nature is needed, now more than ever. 


About the Artists

Laura Cannamela received her MFA from Queens College of CUNY before moving to the Hudson Valley area of New York. Her artwork has been featured in numerous exhibitions at galleries around New York and New England. Within the past year, she has shown her artwork at the Hyde Collection in Glens Falls, NY, and at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art at SUNY New Paltz. Her ceramic sculpture installation was selected for the Hudson Valley Artists 2017 Purchase Award and has been added into the Dorsky Museum’s permanent art collection. She has taught at Queens College of CUNY, the College of St. Rose in Albany, and Sage College of Albany, and currently teaches ceramics and sculpture at Ichabod Crane High School. Laura Cannamela reflects on the interconnectivity of the Hudson river’s water and landscape. Her works are inspired by the observations of creek waters and the idea of Heraclitus.“You never step into the same river twice, for it is not the same river and you are not the same person.”
Mark Cooper is an internationally recognized artist known for large-scale and site-specific installations. His professional honors vary from commissions at the Boston Medical Center, to Artist Fellowships through the Massachusetts Cultural Council (2011, 2017), a Gund Travel Grant (Japan and Korea), and an Open Society Fellowship among others. In 2006 he authored Making Art Together through Beacon Press. In 2013, he was a Foster Prize Finalists at the Institute of Contemporary Art (Boston, MA) and included in “New Blue and White” at the Boston MFA. Integral to his art is the idea that the sum of the parts is greater than the individual parts.

Furen Dai’s practice has focused largely on the economy of the cultural industry, and how languages lose function, usage, and history. Dai’s hybrid art practice utilizes video, sound, sculpture, painting, and collaboration. Her years as a professional translator and interest in linguistic studies have guided her artistic practice since 2015. Furen Dai has exhibited her work at the National Art Center, Tokyo, and the 13th Athens Digital Arts Festival, Greece. She has participated in residencies, including International Studio and Curatorial Programs, Art OMI, NARS Foundation, and has received public art commissions from The Art Newspaper (2019) and Rose Kennedy Greenway (2020). 
Christopher Frost is a sculptor living and working in Somerville, MA. His work has been exhibited and collected in museums and art institutions throughout the New England area. His indoor and outdoor sculpture is part of many private and corporate collections. He began his education at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine and then progressed to the Parsons School of Design, and Paris, France. He received a Master’s degree from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Christopher Frost has been creating sculptures based on an exploration of traditional Scholar’s Rocks for several years. Frost’s pieces emerge from these aesthetics and infuse characteristics of contemporary environments. 
JooLee Kang interprets the complicated interaction between humans and nature from various perspectives. Her work asks us to consider the possibility and dignity through drawing and mixed installation. JooLee Kang received her BFA in Painting from Duksung Women’s University in Seoul, Korea and her MFA from Tufts University - School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, USA. She had numerous exhibitions including solo exhibitions at Gallery NAGA (USA, 2020, 2017, 2014), Korean Cultural Center in Madrid (Spain, 2018), Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art (Korea, 2018), Harvard Medical School (USA, 2018), Museum of Art at Univ. of New Hampshire (USA, 2014) and group exhibitions at Amorepacific H.Q. (Korea, 2019), Newport Art Museum (USA, 2019), Taipei Fine Arts Museum (Taiwan, 2017), DMZ Camp Greaves (Korea, 2017), Arko Art Center (Korea, 2016), Jonathan Ferrara Gallery (USA, 2015), Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture Artist Grant (2018), and Massachusetts Cultural Council Award (2012). She was invited as an Artist-in-Residence at Gyeonggi Creation Center (Korea, 2018), Cheongju Art Studio (Korea, 2017), Willapa Bay AiR (USA, 2015), and Beijing Inside-Out Art Museum (China, 2014). 
Woomin Kim reveals what things are made of. Exposing a hidden rawness, She is able to consider the gap between how we know these objects and what they really are. Woomin Kim is a South Korean artist currently based in Queens, NY. Kim had solo shows at Boston Sculptors Gallery (Boston, MA) and Maud Morgan Arts Center (Cambridge, MA) to name a few. She has participated in several residency programs including the Queens Museum Studio Program, Ox-bow School of Art and Studio MASS MoCA. Kim has received fellowships and awards from the Joan Mitchell Foundation and the Korean Cultural Center. Kim was invited as a visiting artist for various institutions including Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, deCordova Sculpture Park Museum, and Bunker Hill Community College. Her works have been featured in The New York Times and Hyperallergic among others. Kim holds a B.F.A from Seoul National University and received an M.F.A. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Susan Meyer makes sculptures, installations, and 2-dimensional artworks utilizing hand and digital methods. The works explore the utopian instinct, interweaving landscape, and architecture. Meyer has exhibited throughout the US at venues including the Albany International Airport Gallery; the Hunterdon Art Museum, Clinton, NJ; Markel Fine Arts, New York, NY; the Hyde Collection, Glens Falls, NY; Albany Institute of History and Art; the Museum of Contemporary Art/Denver; Center for Visual Arts in Denver; Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art; Artspace New Haven, CT; and the Islip Art Museum Carriage House, NY. Artist residencies include Sculpture Space, Anderson Ranch Art Center, Ucross, and Pilchuck. Meyer is an Associate Professor of Art at The Center for Art and Design of The College of Saint Rose in Albany, NY. 
Andy Moerlein has been an art advocate for the past 30 years. Andy Moerlein is an internationally exhibited sculptor and has been an art advocate for the past 30 years. His art presents a personal reaction to the powerful interaction between psyche and phenomena. He has an extensive resume of public artworks and monumental outdoor sculptures. In October 2020 he completed his second commission for Crystal Park, a private sculpture garden in Holmes NY. His work can be seen at Contemporary Arts International, Acton MA, Verbier 3D Foundation in the Swiss Alps, Haskell Public Gardens, New Bedford MA, Andres Institute, Brookline NH, Fruitlands Museum collection, Harvard MA, and private locations nationally. Moerlein holds a BA from Dartmouth College and an MFA from Cornell University. He lives and works in Maynard MA and Boston MA.
Laura Moriarty’s work has been presented in numerous exhibitions, both nationally and internationally since 1992. Her work is held in many permanent collections, including The New York Public Library; the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History; and the Progressive Art Collection. Laura’s honors include an Individual Support Grant from the Adolph & Esther Gottlieb Foundation, a residency at the Baer Art Center in North Iceland, and two Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grants. She is the author of an artist’s book, 'Table of Contents', self-published in 2012. Laura Moriarty makes process-driven sculpture and works on paper whose forms, colors, textures, and patterns result from the same processes that shape and reshape the earth.
Elisa Pritzker is an artist and independent curator based in Ulster County, New York. She has exhibited at MoMA, Queens and Dorsky Museums among an innumerable group and solo exhibits. Her art is in the permanent collections from the Dorsky Museum, Jean Cherqui Art Collection, and in Paris, France & New York, Brooklyn Library, Hammond Museum, the Argentine Consulate in NYC, the Wiseman Gallery/Rogue Community College, and the Luz & Alfonso Castillo Foundation. Elisa Pritzker paints the stones as she finds them, Her own hand-painted magic stone installations have analogous virtues with the Scholars Stones. Bringing the past into her current work makes it relevant today.

About the Curator
Donna Dodson is an independent curator, freelance writer, and a visual artist. She is currently a Visiting Scholar at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass. Donna regularly contributes articles to newspapers, magazines and blogs that demonstrate the economic impact and global reach of the arts sector in Boston and beyond. Donna Dodson's curatorial projects include "Wood as Muse" at the Art Complex Museum in Duxbury, Mass., " Convergence: Boston Sculptors Exhibits on the Christian Science Plaza," in Boston, Mass., and  "Connections/Conexiones," at the Nesto Gallery, Milton Academy, in Milton MA. Her exhibitions have been reviewed by the Boston Globe, Sculpture Magazine, and WGBH Boston. Dodson is a graduate of Wellesley College. 
 
About the Korean Cultural Center New York
Inaugurated in 1979, the Korean Cultural Center New York is a branch of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) of the Republic of Korea. Under the authority of the Consulate General, KCCNY works to promote cultural arts exchange and stimulate interest in Korean culture through various opportunities including exhibitions, concerts, film festivals, and educational programs.