Broward College Professors Showcase Artwork in South Korea’s DMZ Museum

Broward College Professors Showcase Artwork in South Korea’s DMZ Museum

Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (June 20, 2018) – Two Broward College art professors Catherine Leisek and Doris Araujo have been selected to participate in an international Artnauts exhibition titled, "Liminal Space" in South Korea. The exhibit aims at fostering dialogue on the conflict between North Korea and South Korea and the nuclear threat that exists there. Leisek, an assistant art professor, and Araujo, an adjunct art professor are among 47 artists whose works are on display at South Korea's DMZ Museum, located three miles south of the North Korean border, from June 22 through December 22, 2018.

Both are distinguished members of Artnauts, a respected international collective which uses the arts as a tool for addressing global issues while connecting artists from around the world. Leisek and Araujo's original works will be represented in two diptychs which interpret the theme of liminal space as it relates to preconceived notions about the DMZ.

"It is a privilege to represent Broward College and an honor to have our art showcased on an international stage in this auspiciously timely exhibit," said Catherine Leisek, assistant art professor, Broward College.

"Some Wounds Scar" (Left Horizontal) "Some Wounds Never Heal" (Right Horizontal)

Some Wounds Scar Some Wounds Never Heal

Catherine Leisek's artist statement: "Sixty years and the space that separates North and South Korea, the DMZ zone, has been restored to its natural habitat. Nature thrives but, in the pristine environment lies a wound and scars that may never heal until peace is planted and flourishes. This image replicates the length, width and shape of this liminal space and the attempts to suture the divide."

Life, Pastel on sanded paper, 2018 by Doris Araujo

Life, Pastel 1 Life, Pastel 2

"I am truly honored to be a part of the Artnauts and participate in this exhibition representing Broward College," said Doris Araujo, an adjunct art professor at Broward College. "Expressing ourselves in these kinds of venues, touching sensitive topics, and collaborating with other artists, is an important and detriment part of an artist's career."

Doris Araujo's artist statement: "Thoughts, breaths, acts, progressions, evolution, transcendence, and transition encompass our lives; the moments in between these allow our minds to process information and move forward in an almost spiritual state of which we may not always be fully aware. The lines in my work represent these 'in between' moments. I am a human being that belongs everywhere, but some are divided by physical spaces. As humans, though, we are still connected, and similar, because we all experience these transitions between states."

Artnauts was founded in 1996 by Dr. George Rivera as a way to take art to places of international contention and address timely social issues. To date, Artnauts has put on more than 300 art exhibitions in more than a dozen conflict-affected countries around the world.