Mia O

Bio

Mia O is a South Korean artist, currently living and working in Tokyo, Japan. She received her BFA in Fine Arts from Hong-ik University, Seoul, Korea and her MFA in Painting from Pratt Institute School of Art in New York. She was a 2003 participant in the Nagasawa Art Park Artist-in-Residence program, run by the Mokuhanga Innovation Laboratory, where she was introduced to Mokuhanga, a traditional print making process using water based ink on hand made Japanese paper. Her works have been exhibited and collected internationally, including a purchase award by the Hawaii state Foundation for culture and the Arts, Art in Public Places. and inclusion into the Kentler International Drawing Spaces Flatfiles.

韓国出身で、現在東京存在。ソウルにある弘益(ホンイク)大学で絵画を学び、ニューヨークのプラットインスティテュート美術学校で絵画の修士号(MFA)を取得した。2003年、兵庫県の淡路島においてアーティストインレジデンスプログラム、Nagasawa Art Parkに参加し、京都の職人から浮世絵に使われる木版画技法を学ぶ。2018年、木版画作品がハワイ州文化芸術財団からアワードを受賞、財団のThe Art in Public Place Collection に加えられ、所蔵されることとなった。以後、作品は米国ニューヨーク市のKentler International Drawing Spaces Flatfilesをはじめ、世界各地で展示および収集されている。

Statment

`The Silent Moment`  @SVAC in 2021

The very center of your heart is where life begins – the most beautiful place on earth. -by Rumi

How I started Mokuhanga

It was love at first sight when I first saw an exhibition of Ukiyo-e prints when I went to the Ukiyo-e exhibition at the Brooklyn museum in 2000, while I was an MFA candidate at Pratt. I was enchanted by these print works, and I wanted to learn about the process of making them. 

In 2003, I was invited to join an artist residency program in Nagasawa Art Park in Japan.  During the residence, artists were taught by both a professional carver and printer from Kyoto. I was overwhelmed to learn the process without any knowledge or experience. Ukiyo-e prints were beginning to be made around the 17th century during E-do period in Japan.

The process was separated in three parts; 1. Designed by artist 2. Carving wood blocks by a master carver 3. Printed by master printers. However, today, contemporary artists are doing all three processes by themselves. 

In 2004, I moved to Japan, without speaking the language, and with no family or friends for support. After my daughter was born in 2005, feeling isolated and longing to make art, little by little I started to practice Mokuhanga at home, while my baby was sleeping. The best thing about Mokuhanga is that I don’t need a big studio or a printing press to make my work. And, as it is water based, using all natural materials, it doesn’t get messy like painting, and it carries no fumes. I have learned many lessons from my practice of Mokuhanga, not only techniques, but also, life lessons.

About the works

I am open to any expression in Art. 

Over the last twelve years. I have concerned myself with landscape, both as abstraction and representational form. Abstraction, to me, is often more realistic than representation. Since I was young, I have tried to visualized imaginary worlds. 

For the past 18 years, I have developed my own printing processes,

combined with different methods, such as collage with painting, origami and layered washi. I love Japanese papers, particularly mulberry paper. It is durable yet delicate and feels warm as though I am in nature. When I use mulberry paper, I want to show these qualities in my work. What excites me about printmaking is that I can get the flatness of ink on the surface and that I can repeat patterns.

In 2018, in Tokyo, I exhibited my prints in a solo exhibition. For a long time, I had thousands of reasons to hate myself and suffer. But, after an experience of being showered with sunshine, somehow the sunshine enchanted me to find out who I am. That’s when I began the circle series, which became the basis for my solo exhibition.

Nature is always teaching me both to persist and let go. Making art is the silent moment where I am true to myself and to the practice of letting go. I hope my works will resonate with the viewer, to feel the power of these feelings. 

Thanks to

I am grateful to SVAC for giving me this chance, in this difficult time, to share my work at their beautiful gallery surrounded by nature, and to Patty Hudak, for her friendship and helping with the installation of my work. I would like to thank the many master craftspeople in Japan who have passed the traditional process of Mokuhanga and its materials, to myself and from generation to generation. And finally, to my family, who always have patience with me.

`Present` mokuhanga solo exhibiton @CFSHE Gallery, Tokyo. in 2019

Over the last ten years I have concerned myself with the landscape, more specifically nature, which I feel a great affinity with.

Working with nature gives me a great feeling of satisfaction and fulfilment.

I used to observe landscape with a bird’s eye view. However, I have changed my viewpoint so that I am now looking upwards towards the sun, which I believe has energised me to start producing circular prints.

Whilst I was preparing My first Mokuhanga exhibition in 2016, entitled “Pilgrimage of Landscape”, I played with the crossing and overlapping of lines. This was something I realized that was important to me: unexpected geometric shapes and patterns revealed themselves when I experimented with these line drawings.

I work within the mediums of painting and Mokuhanga printing  quite freely, with no parameters.  To me, I feel challenged because the way I approach both these mediums, I feel, is in total opposition. However I now realize that painting can influence Mokuhanga, and vice-versa.

When I approach printmaking, I don’t want to simply replicate a drawing or painting. I want the print to be ‘original’ and to evolve naturally and organically. I enjoy the element of unpredictability within the print medium.

I am glad to have learned the Mokuhanga process as it has taught me patience and clarity which has fed into other areas of my life.

Painting Statment (2018~)

When you are near to nature, you see the phenomena of its vitality.

In this exhibition, I am showing my paintings on paper. The conscious state without my thoughts is best expressed through Painting. Just as a plant or a flower does not plan for a certain expression, I seeking a form of expression that exists purely as part of its own being, as Nature intended. I approach my painting as a part of Nature, not as an imitation of it. Although the work may be considered abstract, the colors and patterns are the real feelings surrounding me, so the phenomenon of the work expresses my deep reality. I want to capture the details of minute Natural changes, such the wind, rain, or sunshine, or the cycles of blooming, falling, and decay.