Composing Light & Wind in Landscape

Paintings by Joonja Lee Mornes at Inver Hills Art Gallery

The Inver Hills Art Gallery in the Fine Arts building on the main campus of Inver Hills Community College is hosting Composing Light & Wind in Landscape, an art exhibition by Joojna Lee Mornes, an an Asian-American artist who grew up in Seoul, South Korea. Running from Tuesday, February 6, till Tuesday, February 27, 2018, the exhibition features abstract landscape paintings that explore the inspirational relationships water, earth and sky have with light and the seasons.

WHAT:
Composing Light & Wind in Landscape

WHO:
Paintings by Joonja Lee Mornes

WHEN:
Tuesday, February 6, 2018, thru
Tuesday, February 27, 2018

Gallery hours:
Monday and Wednesday: Noon –5 p.m.
Tuesday and Thursday: Noon – 4 p.m.
Friday: Closed

WHERE:
Inver Hills Art Gallery

Fine Arts Building
Inver Hills Community College
2500 East 80th Street
Inver Grove Heights, MN  55076

Artist statement

As an artist, I strive for peace and harmony at this difficult time living in this unsettling world around us. Thinking and making of artwork is a way of balancing many aspects of my life. I turn to earth, sky and water that we see every day for inspiration and explore their quiet existence. My abstract landscape paintings are created from watching nature, mostly Minnesota prairies, during changes in light throughout the day and the seasons.
In my recent series of paintings, I created a layer of text, mostly poems, as a base for the landscape paintings. Some of these poems have been used in music by various contemporary and classical composers. Using text as a visual vocabulary, my main interest focuses on how the landscape images intertwine with calligraphic notes in a contemporary and abstract context. These interwoven abstract paintings embrace many elements from poetry, music and movement in dance. I work simultaneously with or without the text.
While painting remains my main medium, I also experiment with various other media and materials. In previous exhibitions, I’ve installed site-specific projects using bronze screen material. With this material, folded and layered, I am exploring nature and light, the theme I’ve used in my paintings. I intend to continue investigating other possibilities in my future work.
— Joonja Lee Mornes

About the artist

I am an Asian-American artist who grew up in Seoul, South Korea. I hold a Master of Arts in Painting and have been a professional artist for more than 40 years combined with former careers as an art teacher in Wisconsin and Minnesota, and as an architecture librarian at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.
I have been exhibiting my work mostly in Minnesota at university and college art galleries such as St. Olaf, St. Benedict, Winona State, the University of Minnesota, Augsburg, Riverland, and various community art centers, including Bloomington, Minnetonka, Phipps, MacRostie, Northfield and many others with occasional exhibitions in other states. I received Minnesota State Arts Board grants in 2005 and 2010.
— Joonja Lee Mornes

To learn more about Composing Light & Wind in Landscape at the Inver Hills Art Gallery, contact:

Erin Goedtel
Gallery Curator and Coordinator
651-450-3101

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