posted September 6, 2008
Participating in Gallery Hop 2008 for the first time, new artist in residence, Miki Boni, shares her studio/showroom with the public at 1611 Mitchell Ave. on the Southside. The annual Hop takes place from 2-9 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 13.
Miki Boni and sculptor husband Thomas Paulsin moved to Chattanooga this summer on an Artist’s Incentive from their studios at Kaos Gallery in Bradenton, Fla. There, they helped to grow the now popular artists enclave, Village of the Arts. During that time, Miki also worked closely with the city to produce arts events, and with public schools, serving as a mentor to high school art students. They have recently been featured on HGTV.
“My husband and I heard about Chattanooga through friends,” said Miki. “We visited the area last summer and had a-love-at-first-sight moment. Instantly attracted to the city, we knew we resonated with and had a lot to offer to this burgeoning art community. We met others in our new urban neighborhood - artists and non-artists alike - and we're finding the true meaning of community here. We are looking forward to using our skills to contribute to the growth of the arts in Chattanooga.”
Miki began her career in New York's East Village drawing street portraits. She has lived in Mexico as a working artist where she taught painting and drawing at Instituto Allende, in San Miguel de Allende. “There, and in Russia, I was deeply influenced by surrealism and in the East, by minimalism," she said.
With an insatiable appetite for travel, Miki has picked up image bank material along the way.
Widely exhibited and in private collections in Mexico, Europe and the U.S., Miki is the first American woman painter whose work was selected to be part of a permanent collection at Museo Ateneo Cultural in Nayarit, Mexico. The recipient of a special painting award at New York's Albert Cork Gallery at Lincoln Center, she was represented by WomanArt Galleries on West 57th Street, N.Y. Listed in "Who’s Who of American Women", five of her works appear in the 2002 edition of "New Arts International."
She was recently elected to Washington DC’s National League of American Pen Women for her accomplishments in the visual arts. In addition to painting, she is also a published photographer and writer.
Miki was trained as a classical portraitist, but chose instead to take an expressionistic leap, giving realism a new face. It is a more spirited approach, but always with at least one foot grounded in a recognizable universe - a series of ladies in their eighties for example, or unself-conscience children, or the unconditional love-look that animals give to their pet humans. She leaves the viewer to explore what lies behind the eyes, the soul, the heart of her sometimes humorous, sometimes haunting images and themes. Her signature patterning is a recurring theme in many of her works.
She said, “Each place I’ve lived has influenced my art. In Mexico, my images were surreal, the colors totally unreserved; in the Northeast, they were muted. In Florida, the colors and forms were taken from the sea and the sunshine. Now that I’m in Chattanooga living in an urban setting, I’m beginning to see that unfolding. Having been born and raised in a city, It is kind of like coming home.”
The 2008 Gallery Hop Brochure featuring a map and listings of galleries and artists are available at all participating venues, including AVA on Frasier Avenue. The event is free and an opportunity to meet artists face to face. For more information, call 475-5533.
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