Upcoming Show // Open Call Winner Mu Pan Brings His Epic Art To 3rd Ward In March

We announced the winners of our Fall 2011 Open Call last week, but we're also excited to tell you that we've set the date for a solo show by Mu Pan, the Grand Prize winner of our Summer Open Call. The Taiwan-born, Brooklyn-based artist will be showing his work at 3rd Ward on March 23.

Pan tells us that he's working nonstop to get finish up the artwork that he'll be presenting, including some massive oil paintings and watercolor works. One of those is the astounding One Thousand and One Noon, pictured above. "This is about America entering the Islamic world, and the bitter war we have been fighting for the past decade," he says. "I am a huge fan of Indian miniture paintings, so I wanted to do something like that with the subject of what is going on today in that part of the world.  I used a very narrow and ignorant view point to make this project, because I want to emphasize how ignorant people are about Muslims in this country, especially this city. As you can see, I love to put what I like in my images, so this time I borrowed so many elements from those Sinbad series movies I loved when I was very little."

The scene above, which is only one panel of the One Thousand And One Noon triptych, took Pan about two months to finish. He'll have all three ready panels ready for March's show. The piece's title, Pan tells us, is a combination of One Thousand And One Nights, the famous collection of folk tales, as well as the classic Western film High Noon.

As our Grand Prize winner, Pan was also featured in Art Tapei back in August, and he tells us that it was a great experience, though somewhat sentimental. "I've only gone back three times since I left there in 1997, and I can still feel the love and acceptance from my people after all these years," he says. He sold most of the work that he brought for the fair and was featured in an article about Art Taipei in one of Taiwan's major newspapers.

Hit the jump for a few details from One Thousand and One Noon, as well as a sneak peek at more work that Pan will be presenting here. Mark your calendar for his show on March 23.

-- John Ruscher