Exhibit ran from May 8 - September 15, 2006

About the Artist

DAYTON, Ohio – “Madonnas of the Morning Calm,” an exhibit of 30 sacred images by Korean artist O-Sek Bang, will be on display from May 15 through September 15 in the Marian Library Gallery, located on the seventh floor of Roesch Library on the UD campus. Admission is free, and the gallery is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Call (937) 229-4254 to make arrangements to view the exhibit during additional times.
            Centerpiece of the exhibit is a fifteen-foot-long screen depicting the Annunciation, Visitation and other scenes from the life of Mary, Mother of God, on six four-foot sections.
            Ms. Bang, who lives in Seoul, uses Korean color dye ware on Korean drawing paper to create the images.
            Ms. Bang’s deep devotion to Mary is reflected in the number of paintings she has created of the Holy Mother of Korea, several of them included in this exhibit. In them Mary is shown in traditional garments of a queen or noble woman.
            All of her work is in traditional Korean painting style and reflects her culture’s religious ethos. The characteristic trait of Korean painting is to express briefly and to the point, leaving some blank area on the work. In this way spectators have latitude for thinking and are able to fill up the space, not with craftsmanship or technique, but with faith, according to Ms. Bang.
      “O-sek Bang is one of the artists who sowed the seeds which contain the Korean sacred art,” Woong-Mo Jung, Seoul Archdiocese, wrote in the foreword of Ms. Bang’s book, Holy Paintings of Korea (2001).  The book features Ms. Bang's work. It was published in conjunction with her exhibit.
      Ms. Bang’s work includes a carved stone mural-relief of 103 Korean Martyrs for the Saenamto Basilica in Seoul and several bronze statues, including the Holy Mother and Child in Korean style.
            Ms. Bang, whose grandparents were martyrs, was a member of the Sisters of the Blessed Korean Martyrs for twenty-five years.
           For media interviews, contact Father Johann G. Roten, S.M., at (937) 229-4214.

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