Lun*na Menoh
A Ring Around the Collar
June 10th – August 13th, 2017
Art Exchange, in partnership with the Long Beach Museum of Art, is excited to present the work of Lun*na Menoh, a Japanese-born performance artist living and working in Los Angeles. Her multi-layered works engage a variety of media – music, sculpture, painting, and fashion – exposing the invisible threads and interconnections between the visual arts, performance, and Haute Couture.
“Long Beach Museum of Art is excited to bring the art of Lunna Menoh to the Art Exchange and the Long Beach community. Menoh’s art cuts across a wide variety of disciplines and provides a unique experience that will challenge our perceptions of social roles and conventions.” – Claudia Bohn-Spector, Chief Curator, Long Beach Museum of Art, and curator of Lunna Menoh: A Ring Around the Collar
Beginning in 1999, Menoh created a series of conceptual paintings, depicting dirty white collars from different eras against a stark black background. Blending traditional still life painting with surrealist strategies involving visual paradox, alienation and surprise juxtapositions, Menoh turns the viewer’s expectation on its ear. Her complex and witty paintings frequently reference famous images of writers, activists and musicians, like Sigmund Freud, Malcolm X, the Beatles, and Patti Smith, among many others.
ARTX invites the community to attend the two events held in conjunction with the exhibit. There will be an opening celebration of Lunna Menoh: A Ring Around the Collar on Saturday, June 17th from 5:00-9:00pm. Additionally, ARTX will host a special performance by Les Sewing Sisters and Lunna Menoh’s critically acclaimed Fashion Show. Lun*na Menoh and Saori Mitome are Les Sewing Sisters, and together they create musical performances combining the sounds of sewing machines and women working together, using twisted language and action. This performance is not to be missed and will take place on Saturday July 22nd at 8:00pm in the ARTX Gallery. This event is free and open to the public.
“The Art Exchange is thrilled to be able to host Lun*na Menoh and Les Sewing Sisters in the ARTX Gallery. Menoh’s unique blend of visual art, music and fashion is a perfect fit for ARTX as we look to bring a wide variety of art and artist styles to the Long Beach community.” – Jay Hong, Art Exchange Executive Director
The exhibition runs from June 10th through August 13th, 2017 in the ARTX Gallery in Downtown Long Beach.