[Online Conversation Series 2] Portals - Collecting and Interpreting Evocative Rocks
October 29, 2020 (Thursday) "Portals"
As a part of “Interpreting the Natural: Contemporary Visions of Scholars' Rocks,” we are hosting a series of conversations with renowned experts, scholars and curators in the field of scholars’ rocks and viewing stones in dialogue with the award winning artists who are featured in this show. Each conversation will be approximately one hour.
L to R: Chrysanthemum Stone from the Collection of Thomas Elias and Hiromi Nakaoji, Siblings by Andy Moerlein, Magic Bird of Peace and Hope (Detail) by Elisa Pritzker
"Portals: Collecting and Interpreting Evocative Rocks" Thursday Oct 29th with Dr. Thomas Elias, Founder of the Viewing Stone Association of North America, who will lend one of his Korean viewing stones to the show, Dr. Virginia Moon, Associate Curator of Korean Art at LACMA and two artists in the show: Andy Moerlein and Elisa Pritzker. This talk will focus on the art of stone collecting, both as an historic tradition and as a contemporary practice. Why contemporary artists have translated this aesthetic into new art forms and how each individual rock speaks about a larger landscape will be addressed in this talk.
Thomas S. Elias is Chairman of the Viewing Stone Association of North America and Honorary Vice Chairman of the View Stone Association of China. He is the former Director of the U.S. National Arboretum in Washington D.C. and Professor of Botany at Claremont Graduate School in Claremont, California. Elias has been researching the Asian art of stone appreciation for over 20 years and has traveled extensively throughout Asia. He and his wife, Hiromi Nakaoji, have authored or co-authored over 50 papers and the book Chrysanthemum Stones, The Story of Stone Flowers in 2010. Elias authored four additional books, Viewing Stone of North America (2014), Spirit Stones with Kemin Hu in 2014, Viewing Stones of Yunnan Province (2018), and Contemporary Viewing Stone Displays with Richard Turner and Paul Harris in 2020. Elias has lectured on viewing stones and served as a judge for stone exhibitions in seven countries. Their website, www.vsana.org, established in 2012, attracts about 10,000 visitors each month from 115 countries.
Virginia Moon is the Associate Curator of Korean Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Prior to LACMA, Moon attended the Pre-College Division of Juilliard College in New York City and performed as a classical pianist for 26 years, including venues such as Carnegie Hall. At LACMA, she curated the traveling exhibition Treasures from Korea: Arts and Culture of the Joseon Dynasty, 1392–1910 (2014) and a solo exhibition of works by Korean-American artist Young-Il Ahn, Unexpected Light (2017–2018). Her research interests and lectures range from ancient to contemporary arts. She holds degrees from Yale, Harvard, and USC. She co-curated the major exhibition, Beyond Line: The Art of Korean Writing (2019), which was the first in a series of three shows supported by “The Hyundai Project: Korean Art Scholarship Initiative,” a global exploration of traditional and contemporary Korean art. Beyond Line was the first writing exhibition of its kind outside Asia and the award-winning exhibition catalog is the first contribution published in English on the subject. Her next upcoming shows will include a solo show for contemporary Korean ink master Park Dae Sung in fall 2021 and a major exhibition on modern art, the first in the U.S, The Space Between: The Modern in Korean Art scheduled for fall 2022.
Andy Moerlein is an internationally exhibited sculptor. His work has been shown in museums, sculpture gardens, and galleries from Alaska to New York, Switzerland to Peru. Mr. Moerlein has an extensive resume of public art works and site-specific monumental outdoor sculptures.
In October 2020, he completed his second commission for Crystal Park, a private sculpture garden in Holmes NY. His work can be seen at Contemporary Arts International, Acton MA, Verbier 3D Foundation in the Swiss Alps, Haskell Public Gardens, New Bedford MA, Andres Institute, Brookline NH, Fruitlands Museum collection, Harvard MA, and private locations nationally.
The work included in this show features sculptures informed by Moerlein’s enthusiasm for scholars’ rocks. This Chinese tradition of collecting scholars’ rocks involves the elegant presentation of precious and adored stones for contemplation and enjoyment. The story presented is ancient.
Elisa Pritzker is an artist and independent curator based in Ulster County, New York. She has exhibited at MoMA, Queens and Dorsky Museums among innumerable group and solo exhibits. Her art is in the permanent collections of the Dorsky Museum, Jean Cherqui Art Collection, Paris, France & New York, Brooklyn Library, Hammond Museum, Argentine Consulate in NYC, Wiseman Gallery/Rogue Community College and the Luz & Alfonso Castillo Foundation. Elisa Pritzker has been featured in many publications such as Hyperallergic, CNN, Chronogram Magazine, The Huffington Post, and the PBS Channel. Her "Eclectica Store" was showcased in the New York Times.
She finds the Scholars’ Stones fascinating and related to her art. Since she paints the stones as she finds them, her own hand-painted magic stone installations have analogous virtues with the Scholars' Rocks. They also have a vibrant luster and suggest numerous shapes, landscapes, animals, vegetation or simply abstractions like the Viewing Stones.