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MIA FUNK

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http://www.vingtparismagazine.com/2011/03/literature-and-art-create-new-landscapes-at-galeries-iconoclastes.html


Her Royal Majesty, Is


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Revolution Art

August 2010


ArtSlant

August 2010

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Social & Personal

August 2010


The Dubliner Magazine

August 2010


Totally Dublin

August 2010


Irish Art Review / Irish Art Buyers Guide 2010


Her Royal Majesty Magazine

Autumn 2010


Aesthetica Creative Works Annual 2010


Hot Press Magazine

November 2009


Arena - RTE Radio 1

16 October 2009


Irish Arts Review

Autumn 2009


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October 24, 2009


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October 2009


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October 2009


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October 2009


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October 2009


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October 2009


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October 2009


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Summer 2009


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16 July 2009


The Irish Times

May 2009


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October 2008


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December 2007


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January 2006


GCN

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October 2009

“The Youth Issue”

Mia Funk: Meta Art Nuavecabacus 2012 © Mia Funk, acrylic, gouache, antique                                  
Text:  Susie Kahlich  Talking to the artist Mia Funk is a slightly unsettling experience, like being surprised by fizz in a drink you thought was flat.  It’s a bit of a shock at first, but then you realize it’s a pleasant shock and yes, you will have another glass of that, please. And that’s how it is with Ms. Funk. Very direct and extremely articulate, she throws you right off balance the second she starts speaking, but leaves you wanting more.  An Irish-German Chinese-American, she physically resembles the Chinese side of her family but, although born and raised in Seattle, her 10 years in Ireland and over a decade in France has inflected her American vocabulary with a hybrid accent that comes across as vaguely German.  And for all her intensity and intelligent observations about art, history, film, pop culture and literature, there exists an underlying social satire that is dark and deliciously addictive yet playful, like a soda designed by Edward Gorey: exotic and mysterious, probably poisonous, but delightful nonetheless.  In other words, an unexpected fizzy drink. It’s this heady mix of playful intelligence and social commentary that runs through her work. Trained at the Ateliers Beaux-Arts, Paris, Ms. Funk’s work has garnered numerous awards and recognition.  Winner of the 2009 Prix de Peinture at the Salon d’Automne Paris, she was also a finalist in Sky Television’s Art Competition London 2010, shortlisted in The Guardian Newspaper’s London Lives Competition 2010, nominated for the Celeste Prize 2010, a finalist in Aesthetica Magazine’s 2010 Creative Works Competition, and was specially commissioned to create a piece for the 2011 Guinness Cork Jazz Festival. Her work is almost meta in nature: art about art, paintings about painting: the artistic process, inspiration, the artist as brand, artist as both destroyer and giver of life.  She wonders on canvas what might have transpired between Lucien Freud and Queen Elizabeth II when HRM sat for Freud’s portrait of her; or Bacon’s process of consuming his own subjects in his work; or the fever dreams of Tennyson’s lamenting mariners in his poem The Lotus Eaters.http://miafunk.com/HOME.htmlhttp://www.goreyography.com/http://www.goreyography.com/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1723071.stmhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1723071.stmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lotos-Eatershttp://www.vingtparismagazine.com/2012/01/talking-to-the-artist-mia-funk-is-a-slightly-unsettling-experience-like-being-surprised-by-fizz-in-a-drink-you-thought-was-f.htmlshapeimage_1_link_0shapeimage_1_link_1shapeimage_1_link_2shapeimage_1_link_3shapeimage_1_link_4shapeimage_1_link_5
THE TRIUMPH OF PAINTING by HRM on DECEMBER 2, 2012 Art en Capital with Mia Funk Les Mangeurs de Lotus Bleu, by Mia Funk Painting is dead, or so everyone keeps telling me, but if that’s the case they haven’t bothered telling the organizers of Art en Capital, nor the tens of thousands who were queuing outside the Grand Palais to be admitted for the salon’s vernissage this Tuesday. There were lines around the block waiting to be let inside. The annual event, which in the beginning was simply known as ‘Le Salon’ because there were no other rival events, was first held in 1725 in the Louvre. Between 1748 and 1890 it was the greatest annual or biannual art event in the Western world. Over the years other salons emerged, including the Independents in 1884, Dessin et de la Peinture à l’eau in 1949, and the Comparaisons in 1956, all of which join the original Salon, now known as the Salon des Artistes Français under the Nef of the Grand Palais, united under the banner Art en Capital. Yet despite this long-standing history (FIAC was only started in 1974 and Art Basel in 1970, while Frieze and Art Paris are relative newcomers, only 9 and 14 years old respectively), I was surprised to learn that many Parisians aren’t aware of the Art en Capital salon or believe the Salon was a historic event that was discontinued years ago. The event is the opposite of controversial, but that’s what makes it interesting. It’s unapologetically devoted to visual art, particularly painting. I emphasize this because it’s in contrast to other red-carpet art events held at the Grand Palais, where the visual aspect of art often takes second place to the business, conceptual, or showbiz aspects. At the latest FIAC I don’t how many times I overheard gallery-goers saying under their breath ‘but is it art?’ before turning away from the full-scale installation of a car wash, or electric fan, or bathroom complete with dirty towels thrown on the floor. More than craft, the work that seems to go into these pieces are the explanations. At Art en Capital there are no explanations, but there’s no question: it is art. You might not like all the pieces on show, many of them displaying traditional skills taught at art academies, but what is evident is the time and thought that has clearly gone into each work. Since its early days in the Carré du Louvre when Ingres, Rodin and Cézanne exhibited, much has changed, but much has reassuringly stayed the same. I was walking around the exhibition with Paris-based writer Susie Kahlich, who remarked on this fact. “It’s great to know that people are still painting like that.” We were looking at a painting of bathers that was no more than a few years old, but might easily have been painted in 1940s. And I echoed that it was nice to know that people are still painting, full stop. Because if you’ve attended recent editions of Frieze or Art Basel, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the more traditionally-trained artists had given up.  Pastel, by a student of the Académie Julian Not at Art en Capital, where there is plenty of the traditional beaux-arts on show – sculpture, oil painting, watercolour, engraving, even photography to a lesser degree is represented – what there’s little of is irony. Which is fine by me because I have overdosed on irony. Once novel and attention-grabbing, it now plays like a joke told too often. I mean, how many times can you look at a badly composed photograph of an obese tourist before it loses it’s edge and just becomes what it is – sort of pointless and ugly. Of course, like all art, it’s hit and miss and not all the artworks succeed, but in the age of the easy, pixel-perfect image, it is encouraging to see that so many are still trying at all. Listen to the conversations as you take in the exhibition and you are likely to hear comments on the technique, style and composition, but no one questioning whether or not it’s “art”. Eavesdropping at the exhibition on a couple standing in front of my own painting of three women in a shadowy blue green landscape, I was lucky enough to overhear their comments, “the composition and the colours are marvellous…” It made my day. And if, like many people, your faith in contemporary art has in recent years been flagging, and you’re looking for an exhibition which represents what French artists – outside the hyped art market bubble – are doing today, then a visit to Art en Capital will make yours. At the Grand Palais until 2nd December. Mia Funkhttp://www.heroyalmajesty.ca/the-triumph-of-painting/
CHA: An Asian Literary Journal Fiction / March 2013 (Issue 20) Love Is No Big Truth by Amanda Lee Koe, art by Mia Funk 
The End of Summer, oil on canvas, 142 x 205 cm 1 There is no such thing in the world, as I cannot live without you; you cannot live without me. The earth spins. Time passes. Rice is eaten. What is there to disprove? He left me a year after the accident that left my face misaligned. A public bus rammed into me at the bus stop from the wet market. The chickens and vegetables in my red plastic bag fell to the floor, and the last thing I saw were the tomatoes rolling out onto the road, turning quickly into red pulp under car tyres. When I woke up in the hospital after surgery, the first thing he said was, Why were you so careless? And I knew that what he meant wasn't I could have lost you. What he meant was that I would be costing him a lot of money, for the operation and the hospital stay More> All artworks>http://www.asiancha.com/content/view/1406/395/http://www.asiancha.com/content/view/1431/395/http://www.asiancha.com/content/view/1435/393/http://www.asiancha.com/content/view/1404/391/shapeimage_3_link_0shapeimage_3_link_1shapeimage_3_link_2

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