Hybrid States
Maureen Hoon
February 23rd – March 24th

Project: ARTspace is pleased to present Hybrid States, a solo exhibition by Maureen Hoon, featuring new installations and mixed media works from 2012 to present. The show opens February 23 and will run through March 24.

Hoon creates an environment fundamentally inspired from nature, altered and expressed through modern materials and techniques. Organic and geometric forms are brought together to explore concepts of visual perception and interactivity. She uses unconventional materials to expand the diverse possibilities of sculpture and painting by mixing and merging different elements to create composite forms.

Meeting Point is an installation that wraps and winds throughout the main gallery space, conjuring up a meandering labyrinth. The artist senses an intuitive connection between art and music and takes a leap into combining the richness and texture of music and the lyrical movement of gesture in art in this particular installation. Music forms an integral part of this particular work to expand upon the expressive power of art. Artists in the past such as Kandinsky and Klee devoted their art to merge with the expressive qualities of music. Hoon brings together contemporary visual and sonic elements to create new perspectives and dialogue. This work will culminate in an artist performance featuring Israeli cellist, Michael Katz on March 16, 7pm.

The second installation, Compact Colonies, evoke the movements, colors, and forms within an aquatic environment. Its sculptural, organic swirls and vivid colors are reminiscent of tropical waters and corals. The work alludes to our urban environment and sense of constructed reality, and its delicate form suggests a certain fragility, suggesting human activity affecting life at all levels. The installation creates an immersive environment that one can actively step into and expand imaginative associations with the larger natural world.

In assembling archetypes, organic motifs, and border crossing art forms, Hoon’s hybrid works reveal and invite a deeper contemplation of the ecosystems that drive our existence and celebrate interconnectedness in life.

Maureen Hoon is a Singapore-born artist who set off for New York in 2010 to receive rigorous training in the arts. Her mixed-media and installation works play with concepts of visual perception and interactivity. Hoon’s work elude familiar categories of drawing, painting and sculpture. Over the years, she worked across mediums including drawing, painting, mixed media, metal sculpture and welding in New York. She experiments with original techniques and unconventional materials that are assembled and absorbed into the art. She also serves communities in New York City as a community organizer with the City of New York. Hoon maintains her studio practice in Long Island City, Queens. Hoon graduated with a Masters from Pratt Institute’s School of Art & Design in 2012. http://www.maureenhoon.com/