Amherst

Location:  University Museum of Contemporary Art

Date:  Thursday May 22nd

Sponsors:  UMass Fine Arts Center and University Museum of Contemporary Art

Young Ming Moon

Young Min Moon’s practice of art and writing are informed by his experience of migration across cultures and hybridized nature of identities in the context of the historical and political relationship between modern Asia and North America. His interest in Asian modernity and visual culture is predicated by the geopolitical specificities of Korea seen from postcolonial perspective. Moon has exhibited his work in the US, Canada, France, and South Korea. Active also as critic, Moon has published a range of scholarly essays on contemporary Korean art. Moon is an associate professor in the Department of Art at University of Massachusetts Amherst.

elanor wilson

Elenor Wilson is a ceramist who recently relocated to the Pioneer Valley area to become the new editor of The Studio Potter journal, formerly edited by local potter, Mary Barringer.  Elenor works in both functional and sculptural venues, and has just completed a large installation for the 2014 Taiwan Biennial, currently underway.  She is a native of the Midwest, completed her Master’s degree at SUNY New Paltz in the Hudson Valley region of New York in 2009, and moved to Massachusetts in August of last year.

Rie

Rie Hachiyanagi came to the United States as a high school exchange student from Sapporo, Japan. Her initial inability to effectively communicate in English led her to engage in artistic forms of expression. She works in installation and performance, while often utilizing specialized skills in hand papermaking. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in New York, Tokyo, Kyoto, and Sofia, Bulgaria. She is Professor of Art at Mount Holyoke College.

michealmelle

Michael Melle lives and works at his lovely hand built home in Plainfield Mass. A painter and a sculptor, Melle is known throughout New England for the lifelike full scale figures he constructs from simple natural materials. He studied art for three glorious years at UMass Amherst, and received a BFA in Painting in 1975. He has exhibited and hosted workshops in his singular methods of making figures for more than 20 years.