Mina Cheon (PhD, MFA) is a Korean-American new media artist, scholar, and educator who divides her time between Baltimore, NY and Seoul, S. Korea. Cheon received her PhD in Philosophy of Media and Communications from the European Graduate School, European University for Interdisciplinary Studies, Switzerland, under the guidance of critical theorist Avital Ronell in 2008, and published her book Shamanism + Cyberspace (Atropos Press, NY and Dresden) in 2009. As an artist, Cheon has exhibited internationally what she calls her “Polipop” (Political Pop Art), work that includes digital paintings, installation, performance, video, and interactive media. Cheon’s art addresses the relationship between media and political conflicts within Asia and Asia’s relationship with the Western world. Her projects have been shown in solo exhibitions at the Lance Fung Gallery, New York (2002), Insa Art Space, Art Council, Seoul, S. Korea (2005), and C. Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore (2008), The Sungkok Art Museum, Seoul (2012), and Maryland Art Place in Baltimore (2012). Her artworks are in the permanent collections and/or archives of the Sungkok Art Museum in Seoul, Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C., the SSamzie Art Museum of Korea, and EVR (e-flux video rental). Cheon was awarded the 2010 Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and Unity Week Award at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) for her efforts to promote cultural diversity within and beyond MICA, where she is a full-time professor, teaching in foundation, electronic media and culture, and art history, and humanistic studies. In 2011, she was chosen as “One to Watch” by Dr. Leslie King-Hammond, who was honored by the Art Table organization, recognizing women’s leadership in the visual arts. Cheon also has two other terminal degrees: an MFA in painting from the Hoffberger School of Painting (1999), MICA and another MFA in Imaging Digital Arts from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (2002). Her BFA is in painting from Ewha Woman’s University (1996), Seoul, Korea where she was a visiting professor in 2011.
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