Museum PR Announcements News and Information

Ellen Noel Art Museum Presents Beyond Paper Folding. The Art of Joan Son

The Ellen Noel Art Museum presents Beyond Paper Folding. The Art of Joan Son The exhibition will run through November 13, 2011.

Joan Son, a celebrated paper and origami artist, focuses on the natural elements of water, earth and air. Son is known for her large-scale installations of origami butterflies and large kimono robes. In this exhibition, ‘Beyond Paper Folding: The Art of Joan Son’ the walls of the gallery are covered with butterflies and dramatic paper kimonos hanging from an eleven foot ceiling. In addition to these colorful and unique installations, the exhibition features sculptural and traditional artworks made throughout this Houston artist’s career. The exhibition will run September 2 through November 13, 2011

She creates her works one at a time, using the finest Japanese and international papers. Though others might describe her creations as tedious, Son finds her work meditative, particularly the repetitiveness of patterns in geometric shapes. Son also incorporates photos from her travels in China into objects that are touchable and functional.

Joan Son has worked in the medium of paper, based in the discipline of origami, since 1993, when her art was displayed in the windows of Tiffany & Co. However, her interest in origami began many years earlier, when she folded her first paper crane as a teenager. She has created numerous large-scale installations for public and private venues, as well as small works for museum shops, such as the National Gallery of Art and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Her work has been exhibited in Houston at the C.G. Jung Center, the Archway Gallery and the Williams Tower Gallery. She has also shown at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, where she was a participating artist in CraftTexas 2008.

She is a member of Origami USA, teaches origami classes throughout the nation and continues to study with origami masters in Asia and elsewhere around the world. www.noelartmuseum.org

Image: Joan Son, Seekers Robe, 2008, Paper

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *