As the seismic challenges of 2020 affect us, I reflect even more on displacement and history. I have used this time of what feels like waiting and wanting to dive deeper into my heritage. For many years I focused on creating paintings around the idea of place and architecture. Perhaps this new body is an exploration of home and the scaffolding of my history. In my recent paintings I am creating a modern take on minwhas. Minhwas are a Korean folk art that dates back centuries, to the Joseon Dynasty. The word, minhwa, means “painting of the people''. Feelings of displacement become faint when I paint my figures. In many ways, I feel more connected to those who will never see them, the family I have never met. There is hope that one day, if they were able to view my paintings, the beauty of the familiar minhwa style would be an invisible thread that still ties our families together.
Jane Kang Lawrence is a NYC public school art teacher for 15 years. She is a founding director of Peep Space (Tarrytown, NY) and maintains a painting studio in New York.