Mina Cheon <Bio> <Resume> <Reviews> <Art Projects> <Writings> <Teaching>

REVIEWS for Addressing Dolls, Solo exhibition at C.Grimalids Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland, February 28 - March 29, 2008.
The exhibition is accompanied by an essay Embarrassment and Address written by Brian Willems, critic and professor of literature at the University of Split, Croatia.

Essays by Krista Genevieve Lynes on Dizz/placement, 2005, Solo Exhibition at Insa Art Space, Seoul, Korea. Short version:  “North/South Heterotopias: Mina Cheon's Half Moon Eyes,” published in NY Arts Magazine (New York, USA: May/June 2005, Vol. 10, No.5/6). Long version: “Geobodies and Heterotopias: The Artworks of Mina Cheon” Long Version by Krista G. Lynes for "Dizz/placement" Catalog 2005.

Review by Elizabeth Donavan on Groundless, 2002, Interactive string installation with sound, solo-exhibition at the Lance Fung Gallery, 537 Broadway, New York, NY 10012. June 20 - July 19, 2002. (full text in Peek Review). "On entering the Lance Fung Gallery you must negotiate on first glance the floor to ceiling, wall to wall installation of black mesh entitled "Groundless." You see what appear to be black ropes strung from the four sides of the square space in a grid pattern. Closer inspection reveals that the rope is stretchable, heavy-gauge twine (bungee cords) connected to the walls and floor with steel bolts. You wonder what the ropes, in their graceful and taut partial arch (as if cut from the inside curve of a helix), mean to tell us about the ability to stretch and understand our surroundings. The grid structure spreads up and away from the entrance twisting up to the left and down to the right as it moves toward the back wall to meet the ceiling; the slight twist in its rise makes way for the spiral staircase on the right-hand wall. Projected from above onto the floor in front of you is a video loop of a grid pattern."

Groundless & Desiring Infinity, 2005, Interactive bungee string installation with video and sound. Exhibited in Gallery II of Dizz/placement, an invitational solo exhibition at Insa Art Space of the Arts Council Korea. "With obvious visual allusions to string theory, hyperspace, force fields, and the universe itself, one can’t help but feel in another world when viewing this installation. For me it merges the heavens and the seas, both subjects usually too vast to incorporate into one work. Mina Cheon, who goes by the name MINALIZA1000, is a Korean-American artist who works in the United States and Korea and is currently a professor at the Maryland Institute College of Art. This is a photograph taken from within an installation that covers approximately five hundred square feet of gallery space. Made of white bungee strings and accompanied by interactive video projection and sound, the installation encourages viewers/participants to move through it. Each change of position offers a vastly changing perspective. 'What you are seeing is from the inside of the string installation looking toward the gallery doorway,' says the artist. 'The work is about a feeling of groundlessness as we move from understanding the world with our senses to an intellectual model of a particle-based universe. It is a kind of universe in a box.' " —Alex Castro (EYE TO EYE, Urbanite #31 January 2007)

Groundless, Interactive string installation with sound, solo-exhibition at the Lance Fung Gallery, article by Krista Genevieve Lynes for exhibition pamphlet.

SCI ART: Extensions of Being, 2000, Maryland Art Place, Organized by Mina Cheon. "An eclectic wide-ranging gumbo skillfully brought together by the vision and hard work of the youngish curators. Professional, hip and yet not at all trendy. Full of exposed cables and hum, out of style paintings in vortex, psychedelia, body entrapment, nature through computer, even the growing of mold spores and a couple of mock landings on the moon. Best of all was Source of Uncertainty's playful bright-color paneled walk on wired soundboard. The insidious contraption was really a computer which recorded and stored private gallery gab broadcasting it at some futre time determined by chance. The kids are sneaky, weird and wired but way all right. Plus an excellent black and white highly stylized catalog by Baltimore's premiere young graphic designer, Fanky Chak. You can find him at UMBC." —Jack Livingston (PEEKreview picks of 2000)

SCI ART: Extensions of Being, 2000, Maryland Art Place, Organized by Mina Cheon. "This show boggled the mind with its 'salon style' cheek by jowl presentation of an array of technological art, ranging from terrifying (David Page's Time Machine) to thought provoking (all of 'em) to outrageously fun (Olivia Robinson's automatically-inflating sculpture that periodically threatened a soft embrace). A real tour-de-force for Baltimore's techno-arts community, its success was clearly indicated by the extent to which it intimidated the local arts media." (PEEKreview TESTIMONIALS 2000)

Excerpts from other reviews:

"MINALIZA1000, "GROUNDLESS," Lance Fung, 537 Broadway, near Spring Street. An artist who calls herself MINALIZA1000 has constructed a torqued grid of black elastic cord upon which visitors must walk to enter the gallery. Motion sensors start a video projector that plays geometric light patterns over the string structure. It is conceptually promising..."The New York Times, July 5th, 2002, Ken Johnson, Recommended Art Listing.

"MINALIZA1000. This Korean American artist's GROUNDLESS, an elastic string, video, and sound installation based on super-string theory, is not only thoroughly disorienting, but can also literally trip you up. It's like walking through a shifty virtual (and actual) web..." The Village Voice, July 5th, 2002, Recommended Art Listing.

"Korean Installation Artist Mina Cheon is showing her artwork in an invited solos exhibition at the Lance Fung Gallery. Cheon used black bungee cords in a 30x26 feet exhibition space with digital video and sound technology effects. Depending on the movement of the audience, the art piece changes shape and sound. The exhibition is titled "GROUNDLESS" and according to Cheon, 'As a media installation, the exhibition calls for audience interaction.' Cheon continues that, 'the viewer is no longer just an appreciator of artwork but the installation requires a mutual interaction between the audience and artwork.'" EunSook Lim Journalist, Korean Central Daily News (NY), July 4th, 2002. (Translated from Korean to English)

"Artscape, Floor Exhibition. Groundless, for example, by the artist who calls herself MINALIZA1000, is a fascinating string and video projector installation on Decker's floor that up-ends the viewer's conventional notions of three-dimensional space." Glenn McNatt, The Sun, Baltimore July 13th, 2001. Review for Artscape, Baltimore, Maryland.

"New show at School 33 features intriguing photographs and installation. A South Korean artist known as MINALIZA1000 - she is also known as Mina Cheon, according to her resume, has created a compelling installation on the second floor. Her "Desiring Infinity" uses clothsline-sized cords and a video monitor to explore the concept of infinite space. The viewer walks into a black room with the cords, which are hung on the diagonal. A black monitor hanging from the ceiling projects white grids and lines on the screen; the images vibrate when the cords are touched. Even though the floor is just as flat as it ever was, the viewer will have a sensation of walking uphill toward the monitor. The feeling and the purity of the geometric shapes do create an eerie mood. The truth is out there!" Steve Purchase, Journalist, The Baltimore Guide Enterprise, May 17th, 2001.

"At the School 33 Art Center. While your eyes are getting a workout, check out the installation "Desiring Infinity," by an artist who goes by the name Minaliza1000. Lines of string running through the gallery complement the linear images being shown on a video screen, in effect using mathematics to conjure up metaphysics." Mike Giuliano, Journalist, City Paper, Baltimore May 30th, 2001.

"The Clash between Modern Man and Culture: Mina Cheon's digital art shines. Korean artist Mina Cheon is getting attention for her digital artwork titled 'Pixelated Humanism' Ji Hyun Yang Journalist, Korean Central Daily News (NY), August 26th, 2000. (Translated from Korean to English)