Exhibition Opening Reception | | Misoo Bang, Mike Howat, Cierra Vigue, Corrine Yonce

Misoo Bang | Buddhist Teaching of Being Freed of Anguish and Reaching Nirvana 
Opening Reception: Friday, August 22, 2025 5-7pm | Clifford B. West Gallery

Misoo Bang explores the Buddhist teaching of turning away from suffering and moving toward inner liberation. Her exhibition represents a personal and spiritual journey— a struggle to find peace in a world marked by chaos, trauma, and cultural displacement.

The Giantess Series features monumental female figures that symbolize Asian women living in America and survivors of sexual violence. These towering figures appear grounded and serene while occupying turbulent landscapes filled with imagery from Western pop culture, consumer capitalism, and abstract representations of disorder. By reclaiming both physical space and emotional presence, the giantesses subvert narratives of fragility and fetishization often imposed upon them. They do not engage in chaos; instead, they rise above it, embodying strength without aggression and presence without apology.

In contrast, Bang’s paintings of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas—created using the traditional Korean Buddhist technique of Tang Hwa—evoke stillness, compassion, and spiritual clarity. However, even these sacred figures are situated within layered compositions that include ink-based abstraction and symbols of contemporary unrest. The tension between the peaceful forms and their chaotic surroundings reflects Bang’s inner struggle: the desire to live mindfully and compassionately while navigating a world that is fast-paced, fragmented, and often painful.

Rather than providing a fixed solution or a singular point of enlightenment, 전미개오 轉迷開悟 invites viewers into the practice of awakening, as a continuous process of becoming free from anguish and moving toward personal nirvana. Bang’s work honors the complexity of that path: the interplay between clarity and confusion, heritage and adaptation, survival and serenity. This exhibition is both deeply personal and universally relatable. Through spiritual symbolism, feminist scale, and cultural layering, Misoo Bang creates a visual language of resistance, remembrance, and release. 전미개오 轉迷開悟 serves not only as a title but also as a gesture toward healing, freedom, and the stillness that can exist even in the heart of a storm.

Misoo Bang | Biography Misoo Bang is a Korean American artist who expresses emotional narratives and storytelling through painting and drawing. Her recent works, The Giant Asian Girls and The Lotus Flower series, explore the intersection of gender-based violence and racial stereotypes faced by Asian women in the United States. Bang’s work has been exhibited in galleries and museums both across the U.S. and internationally. She was recognized as an Emerging Artist of New England in 2019 and named a Vermont Artist to Watch in 2020. She currently teaches studio art classes at the University of Vermont. Bang holds an MFA in Painting from Florida Atlantic University. She lives in South Burlington, VT.

Misoo Bang | Artist Statement Misoo Bang’s multidisciplinary practice delves into themes of trauma, identity, and healing from both personal and cultural perspectives. Her series, “Giant Asian Girls,” challenges the fetishization and racial stereotypes of Asian women in Western society by depicting towering, serene figures that reclaim space and power. In contrast, her delicate works on folded Yupo paper draw inspiration from childhood trauma, transforming painful memories into immersive narratives of resilience. Rooted in Buddhist philosophy and her Korean heritage, Bang also incorporates the traditional Tang Hwa painting technique as a form of meditation and cultural preservation. In her “Lotus Flowers” series, she reimagines women of color—particularly Asian American women—as Bodhisattvas, blending traditional Korean aesthetics with Western portraiture to honor spiritual strength and rebirth. Navigating between cultures, Bang addresses the feeling of being neither fully Korean nor fully American. Through her process-driven approach, she reclaims her identity, challenges societal invisibility, and preserves a fading artistic tradition. Her work serves as both a form of resistance and a refuge—quietly radical, spiritually grounded, and deeply personal.