Florence Moonan
New Jersey artist, Florence Moonan, has decades of art-making experience. A career dating from the late 1980s includes painting, mixed media and sculpture. She is noted for her tactile abstract venetian plaster paintings.
Upcoming, Sculpture 2024 Juried Exhibition at New Hope Arts will include Moonan’s work. Her work was recently included in Art Across the River, New Hope Arts Center (Awarded the Robin Larson Award for Contemporary Abstraction); Feeling Blue, Abington Art Center, Jenkintown, PA; Phillips Mill Members Show, New Hope, PA; Monmouth Museum 44th Annual Juried Exhibition, Lincroft, NJ; TAWA at 45, Trenton City Museum; Makers Alley and New Hope Arts; Pattern and Rhythms, Trenton Free Public Library (invitational); the David Scott Gallery, Princeton, NJ (invitational); Hunterdon Art Museum Members Exhibition 2022-2023 (juried) and, Ellarslie Open 39 at the Trenton City Museum. She was invited to exhibit at Rutherfurd Hall’s, Celebrate the Arts, Allamuchy, 2022. Along with 15 regional abstract artists, Moonan’s work was featured in The Conversation Continues at The Trenton City Museum 2020-2021 (invitational). Her list of exhibitions is extensive and includes juried, invitational, solo and group exhibitions in Connecticut, Florida, Maryland, New York and Texas. Her work has been featured at the Abington Art Center (solo and juried); Aljira Center for Contemporary Arts in Newark; Centenary College; Chautauqua Institution; The Center for Contemporary Art in Bedminster (invitational); George Segal Gallery; Maryland Federation of Art, Annapolis, MD; Mercer County Community College (Two-person and juried); Middlesex County Museum); Nabisco Brands Gallery, East Hanover, NJ. New Hope Center for the Arts (invitational and juried); Norristown Arts Center (invitational); Perkins Center for the Arts; Philadelphia City Hall; Prallsville Mills (invitational and juried); and Pennswood Art Gallery (solo invitational), and Trenton City Museum (invitational and juried).
In addition, her work was selected for the New Jersey Emerging Artists Series, Monmouth Museum in Lincroft, NJ and Artsbridge Distinguished Artist Series at Prallsville Mills. She has received awards from GoggleWorks Center for the Arts; D & R Greenway Land Trust Gallery; Phillips Mill; Ellarslie Open; New Hope Center for the Arts; Makers Alley; Prallsville Mills; Hunterdon County Cultural & Heritage Commission; Lambertville Historical Society and Golden Key Art International. Her work is in the collection of The College of New Jersey; the Mercer County Cultural Commission Permanent Collection (2); BARC Developmental Services and other entities and private collections. She is represented in Doris Brande’s book, Artists of the River Towns.
Born in Trenton and raised in Lambertville, her home and studio are located in Stockton where she and her husband raised four children. She was a full-time employee and part-time student simultaneously at The College of New Jersey, while actively building a professional art portfolio.
https://florencemoonan.artspan.com
https://www.facebook.com/FlorenceMoonanFineArt
Artist Statement
Distant trees vanish in the mist on foggy days in Stockton. My view across the Delaware to the beautiful hills of Pennsylvania becomes invisible when a curtain of fog lingers over the water creating a mystifying experience. ‘Quiet Space’, a moody abstraction of nature, was developed after the pandemic when I returned to working on paper. It seemed appropriate for the Bridging Nature exhibition. Following this choice, a strange thing happened. I had several sleepless nights thinking about this painting. Memories, words, and images flooded my mind. I felt an overwhelming connection to my deceased sister. She was letting me know she was with me. One morning I had an epiphany when I awoke, and I knew I couldn’t let this experience dissipate. I had to attempt to put my feelings into words. A copy of the resulting poem follows.
Florence Moonan
Quiet Space
Escape with me into the woods
On this foggy day
Dance with me ‘neath shrouded trees
In monotones of gray
Sing. Sing. Sing out loud! Sound your pipes!
Lift the curtain!
Come.
Sit near me.
Now close your eyes and dream with me
In this impermanent scene
