October 24–December 5, 2015
Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art
The Marion and Wayland H. Cato Jr. Center for the Arts
161 Calhoun Street, 1st Floor
Charleston, SC, 29401
The Halsey Institute ends the fall 2015 season with two exhibitions featuring work by Susan Klein and Jiha Moon.
Susan Klein: Shadow Things
Susan Klein’s paintings explore questions of time, of accumulation and losses, of spaces that become layered by history. Klein combines imagery from separate places and times into one image. She usually begins with a landscape painting, sometimes rural, sometimes urban. She then works over these representational paintings, referencing the visual world of objects. The result is an image that is observational, somehow recognizable yet ambiguous.
Jiha Moon: Double Welcome, Most Everyone’s Mad Here
Based in Atlanta, GA, Korean-born Jiha Moon harvests cultural elements native to Korea, Japan, and China and then unites them with Western elements to investigate the multifaceted nature of our current global identity as influenced by popular culture, technology, racial perceptions, and folklore. Featuring over 50 works, Moon blurs the lines between Western- and Eastern-identified iconography, such as the characters from the online game Angry Birds© and smart phone emojis, which float alongside Asian tigers and Indian gods in compositions that appear both familiar and foreign simultaneously. Moon’s witty and ironic work explores how Westerners perceive other cultures and how perceived foreigners see the West.
This exhibition is curated by Amy G. Moorefield, Deputy Director of Exhibition and Collections at the Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, VA, and Mark Sloan, Director and Chief Curator at the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art. The exhibition will travel throughout the U.S. for the next three years.
The Halsey Institute produced a mini-documentary about Jiha Moon, and commissioned Lilly Wei to write an essay on Jiha Moon’s work and Brit Washburn to write an essay on Susan Klein. Both essays are available in a printed brochure.
About Susan Klein
Susan Klein has exhibited her work around the world, including the Brooklyn Artists Gym, Brooklyn NY; 3433 Gallery, Chicago; PDX Contemporary Art, Portland, OR; University of Ulsan, South Korea; and Wayne State University, Detroit, as well as other venues. Recent awards include a full fellowship to the Vermont Studio Center, an Ox-Bow artist in residence fellowship, a residency at Arteles, Finland, and a grant to attend the Takt Berlin residency, summer 2015. Klein received her MFA from the University of Oregon and a BFA from the University of New Hampshire. She is currently Assistant Professor of Art at the College of Charleston.
About Jiha Moon
Born and raised in Daegu, Korea, Jiha Moon lives and works in Atlanta, Georgia. She received her MFA from the University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa and her BFA from Korea University in Seoul, Korea. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Asia Society, New York, New York; the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia; and the Hunter Museum of Art in Chattanooga, Tennessee. She is represented by Curator’s Office in Washington, DC, Saltworks Gallery in Atlanta, Georgia, and Ryan Lee Gallery in New York.
Correlating events
Public opening reception
Friday, October 23, 6:30–8pm
Lecture and gallery walk-through with Jiha Moon
Saturday, October 24, 2pm
Recital Hall, Simons Center for the Arts and Halsey Institute galleries
PURE Theatre + Susan Klein
November 6–28, Thursday–Saturday
PURE Theatre, 477 King Street, Charleston, SC
T +843 723 4444, puretheatre.org
PURE Theatre and the Halsey Institute’s newest joint venture involves a unique collaboration between theatre and visual art. Exhibiting artist Susan Klein has worked with PURE Theatre director Rodney Lee Rogers to design the set and costumes for the production Failure: A Love Story.
Talk back with artist, director & playwright
Thursday, November 12, after the performance
PURE Theatre, 477 King Street, Charleston, SC
T +843 723 4444, puretheatre.org
Lecture and gallery walk-through with Susan Klein
Saturday, November 21, 2pm
Recital Hall, Simons Center for the Arts and Halsey Institute galleries
Members-only curator-led walk-through with Halsey Institute Director Mark Sloan
Thursday, December 3, 6pm
About the Halsey Institute
The Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston provides a multidisciplinary laboratory for the production, presentation, interpretation, and dissemination of ideas by innovative visual artists from around the world. As a non-collecting museum, we create meaningful interactions between adventurous artists and diverse communities within a context that emphasizes the historical, social, and cultural importance of the art of our time.
