I got an invitation from Zia Branner to attend the opening of her latest exhibition named “Shoshin” at the Museum for Art (MUFA). The opening takes place tonight, Sunday, September 11th, at 12 PM SLT, that’s 9 PM CET (Paris). The music for the opening party will be provided by Carelyna, the owner and creator of the ArtCare Gallery.
The Museum for Art (MUFA) is owned and curated by Vandeverre who “likes to share her passion for history, culture, literature and art, so she built the Museum for Art.” Vandeverre provides several links in her profile, there an instagram, a flickr and a twitter account for the Museum for Art.
Zia Branner’s paintings are exhibited on the ground floor near the stairs (just where the provided landmark of the Museum for Art (MUFA) takes you) and near the DJ stand.
Besides Zia Branner’s paintings there are more artists featured:
Illustrations ‘From Oz to home’ by Lis Xia (Xia Chieng).
A sculpture garden with works from Cherry Manga, Vincent Priesley (sweetvincent), Art C (ar10a2.crescendo), and Milena Carbone (mylena1992)
SL Photography by Vandeverre herself – current expo “PORTRAITS”.
Digital 2D Art by Nia Atreides (Nia Voxel), Lis Xia (Xia Chieng), Dragon (dragonangelvs) and RL Photographs by Nils Urqhart
Historical art by Claude Monet made in Holland and Guiseppe Arcimboldo.
Sculpture Garden at the Museum for Art (MUFA)
Back to Zia Branner’s newest exhibition “Shoshin”.
Shoshin is a word from Zen Buddhism meaning “beginner’s mind.” It refers to having an attitude of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions when studying a subject, even when studying at an advanced level, just as a beginner would. The term is especially used in the study of Zen Buddhism and Japanese martial arts (source wikipedia).
In the accompanying notecard Zia explained the word shorter: “Shoshin means: the practice of seeing life with wonder”
The paintings belong to “Shoshin” are near the DJ stand, and it is the first time that these paintings are exhibited.
They are abstract, yet the human brain tends to sort the impressions and to compare with known patterns. I saw teeth, toes, hands, I saw a river with stones, I saw a woman, I saw smoke and an explosion – and I saw colour compositions that were eye candy for me.
Zia’s paintings exhibited near the stairs are abract landscapes, a style that I saw already in former exhibitions of her art.
“Zia Branner had many drawing and painting art lessons at official institutes RL. She is also autodidact on things that did not come along in class. To her making art is a way of life. Often experimenting with techniques as a learning process …. The most important thing to her is that it makes her happy to see others enjoy her art as much as she loves creating it.”
Zia is in Second Life since 2008. She uploaded her RL paintings into SL. Zia owns an art gallery/shop “Elven Falls Art Collective“. Zia also has other permanent exhibitions at The Galleries, Emergent and at Carmel Art Community.
Zia Branner’s art is mostly colourful. She paints abstract and fills the canvas with what just in her mind. She’s inspired by nature and landscapes and consequently her art often looks like landscapes or like flowers. Hence the boarders between abstract and real life paintings are blurring. And what is dominating lies in the eyes of the beholder.
Zia intends to expand her art into painting RL, portraits or still lifes, but so far she’s painting abstract.
Zia paints, primarily, for herself. It is a way for her to express herself. a way to step away from the everydy hustly and bustle of things.
“Figuring out, struggling with or succeeding in creating a painting, capturing things the way I see them on the canvas … it is a big drug. Well, okay, there you have my addicition…. ‘The Earth without ‘art’ is just ‘eh’…“
Enjoy your visit to the Museum for Art (MUFA) and to Zia Branner’s newest exhibition “Shoshin”. Thank you Vandeverre for providing the space for the arts, and thank you Zia for your newest exhibtion.
I enjoyed my visit!
Shoshin by Zia Branner at Museum for Art (MUFA)
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Tokebi/79/213/3970
Museum for Art (MUFA) Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/museumforart
Museum for Art (MUFA) flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/museumforart
Museum for Art (MUFA) twitter
https://twitter.com/GVandeverre
Zia Branner’s art gallery/shop “Elven Falls Art Collective”
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Elven%20Falls/252/41/22
Zia Branner at “The Galleries”
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Georgiana/241/100/57
Zia Branner at “Emergent”
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Mystique%20Isle/191/20/21
Zia Branner at “Carmel Art Community”
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/McFarren/236/161/36
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