Jiha Moon

Ten Moon marks a moment of transition for artist Jiha Moon. Following her relocation from Atlanta—her longtime American home—to Tallahassee three years ago, Moon has embraced a new environment, and her visual language has evolved in response. This exhibition captures that evolution, offering viewers a glimpse into her ongoing transformation.

Moon’s broader studio practice centers on multilayered paintings, ceramic sculptures, and mixed-media works. Drawing from Korean visual traditions, American pop culture, and digital iconography, she constructs a vibrant visual language that explores fluid identities and the global circulation of cultures. These references and motifs take shape in her Shrine series, the centerpiece of Ten Moon. In this body of work, paintings and ceramic objects converge within container-like frames—minimalist architectural forms that serve as three-dimensional stages, intimate spaces where imagined dreams unfold. In the latest iteration, Moon introduces circular panels fitted with shelves, embedding ceramic objects within a moonlike pictorial field. Vessels, dragons, peaches, banana peels, clouds, and hybrid limbs float and interact with
painted imagery, blurring the boundaries between object and image, sculpture and painting. 

Moon’s work occupies a liminal space—between the material and the fleeting. Familiar objects like books, houseplants, and furniture share space with ephemeral elements like mist, breath, and memory. This interplay reflects the layered complexity of personal history, emotional resonance, migration, and cultural memory. “This series is a meditation on that boundary,” she says, “the moment when the tangible and intangible seem to coexist. These imagined worlds
tap into memory, landscape, and emotion—reaching toward what lies buried deep within us.” Each piece offers a meditation on in-betweenness: where the familiar collides with the surreal, and individual experience merges with collective history.

The exhibition’s title, Ten Moon, reflects Moon’s contemplation of the imperfect, layered nature of being human. “We are born that way—and we remain that way,” she notes. For her, the moon serves as a powerful symbol of “otherness.” Often associated with shadow, mystery,
and yin energy, the moon has long been viewed as passive or negative. But Moon reimagines it.

“We are all born of our mothers,” she reflects. “As a child, I made wishes to the full moon in the night sky. I still do.” Through Ten Moon, she reclaims the moon’s quiet, cyclical force as a symbol of hope, resilience, and transformation.