Join us for a special exhibition to celebrate the life and work of iconic North Carolina artist Jim Moon.
On View September 22, 2021 – January 2, 2022 | Community Gallery
SECCA is proud to present Remembering Jim Moon: Where Myth Stirs, an exhibition celebrating the life and work of iconic North Carolina artist Jim Moon (1928–2019). The exhibition will be on view in SECCA's Community Gallery starting Wednesday, September 22, with an opening reception that evening beginning at 5pm. The opening reception is free and open to the public with a suggested $10 donation.
ABOUT JIM MOON
James Monroe Moon, Jr, was born in Graham, North Carolina in 1928, and passed away at the age of 90 in 2019. He studied art at Cooper Union in NYC and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill before being drafted. He went to Europe with the U.S. Army in 1951 and he continued his studies at the Accademia Pietro Vanucci in Perugia Italy. He owned a house in Asolo (in Palladian country) from 1961 until 1976. Moon met Peggy Guggenheim in 1952 and was always welcome in her Palazzo Venier dei Leoni in Venice. He continued his art education at Virginia Commonwealth University, and Mexico City College.
He taught art at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro, Hofstra University, North Carolina School of the Arts (now UNCSA), Salem College, and Northwood Institute. He was instrumental in founding the North Carolina Dance Theater, the Alamance County Arts Council, and Salem College's Art Summer School Program in Asolo, Italy. His paintings are in many public and private collections worldwide, including the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University and the North Carolina Museum of Art.
Jim Moon was an inspiration, mentor, and friend to scores of art students and professional artists. In 1995 he founded the Asolare Fine Arts Foundation as a not-for-profit arts organization to serve other artists, providing exhibitions worldwide and artist residencies at his wooded country home in Lexington.
The paintings in this exhibition are on loan from John Chapman, Jim's longtime life partner. They are all untitled, as the artist never provided titles or artist statements. Instead he preferred to let the viewer create their own meanings and interpretation.
"Where Myth Stirs" comes from An Essay By Norman E. Pendergraft Director, North Carolina Central University Art Museum written for the 1992 retrospective exhibition of Jim Moon's paintings at NCCU.