Black and white portrait of a woman with shoulder-length dark hair, wearing a denim jacket, standing in front of a painted mural with tree branches and art supplies. Text reads 'Becky Moon.'

BECKY MOON

Sticks and Stones

April 4-June 21, 2025

Bruno David is pleased to present Sticks and Stones, an exhibition by Korea-born artist Becky Moon. This is the artist’s first solo exhibition with the gallery. In conjunction with the exhibition, Bruno David Gallery will publish a catalogue of the artist’s work.

Sticks and Stones is a series of paintings that explore the themes of belief, tangibility, mass, and gravity. Moon believes there is nothing as everlasting as the invisible human mind. The mind is a refuge for those who long for a land they can never return to. Moon wants her paintings to be flag posts that remind the existence of the mind that it is real, alive, and persistent. Even when all is lost, the mind lives on.

Moon comes from a half-North Korean and half-South Korean heritage. Growing up, she heard lively accounts from my grandparents about leaving everything North behind to escape war and violence. Their emigration made her question what remains, when everything physical perishes. She realized that the immaterial mind, preserved through love and blood, cannot be taken away. Consequently, she became immersed in depicting the existence of minds.

Therefore, Moon has been depicting the structure of the mind through arrangements of ordinary objects such as branches, stones, and snail shells. She builds the objects out of hundreds of small, squiggly brushstrokes made with meticulous dedication. Meticulousness is crucial because it slowly builds a fortress of reverence for everything the artist chooses to depict. The structures created by those objects celebrate their complexity and tenacity. In her stacked wood paintings like Going… going… gone!, a thin line of gravity holds the hundreds of tree branches together. Their balance shows the role of gravity, a force with qualities similar to belief. One small belief can hold numerous thoughts together.

Moon graduated with a BFA in art with a second major in philosophy from Washington University in St. Louis in 2024. She attended Yale Norfolk school of Art in 2023. Her most recent solo exhibition was at Harvard University with the support of the Mahindra Humanities Center. In addition, she has exhibited in group shows at The Luminary, New York Academy of Art. She currently works as an artist and educator at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Museum. 

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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
A colorful abstract painting of intertwined, twisting branches and roots against a bright sky with a sun. The branches create a tangled, maze-like structure with various swirling details and nodes, with a textured earthy ground at the bottom.

Making do I, 2024 Acrylics on canvas 20 x 16 inches

Colorful abstract painting of a dense network of intertwined blue, purple, and red branches or wires with wooden planks and black rock-like objects scattered throughout, set against a vibrant orange and yellow background.

Going…going…gone!, 2025 Acrylics on canvas 48 x 72 inches (Diptych)

A colorful painting of a large tree stump with visible growth rings on the top, set against a bright blue sky with clouds, mountains, and green grass, with two small snails near the base of the stump.

One Block, 2025 Acrylics on canvas 48 x 36 inches

Colorful abstract artwork depicting intertwined branches and sticks against a dark background with a green grass foreground.

Mind Made of Wood, 2024 Acrylics on canvas 48 x 36 inches

Colorful surreal illustration of tree stumps, branches, rocks, and a snail on a grassy field with a blue sky and moon.

Alchemy, 2024 Acrylics on canvas 48 x 36 inches

A colorful abstract painting featuring a large spiral structure suspended above a green dragon-like creature with multiple legs, surrounded by several cut tree logs and stumps, with a red background and yellow sun in the top left corner.

Unequal Distribution of Legs, 2024 Acrylics on canvas 22 x 28 inches

Various fountains on a green grass background, including animal-shaped fountains like a horse, fish, and penguin, with water flowing in different styles.

Fountains of Inquiry, 2024 Acrylics on canvas 24 x 20 inches

A colorful drawing of a woodworking workshop with a wooden table, hammer, and nails, and a window showing a landscape with grass, a blue sky, a red ball, and a wooden chair outside.

Building a Ladder that Cannot be Climbed Twice, 2024 Acrylics on canvas 28 x 24 inches

A painting of a blue background with a large spiral seashell, a blue moon, a purple tree stump, and green grass.

Time, 2025 Acrylics on canvas 20 x 16 inches

INSTALLATION VIEWS

Two abstract paintings on a white gallery wall, with the smaller on the left depicting dark squiggly lines and the larger on the right featuring bright red, yellow, and purple colors with numerous abstract shapes.
Two colorful, abstract paintings on a white art gallery wall. The left painting depicts a large tree stump with a textured surface against a sky and grass background. The right painting shows a chaotic arrangement of intertwined sticks or branches with a small tree stump at the bottom.
Art gallery with five paintings on white and gray walls, fluorescent lighting, plain gray floor.
Two paintings hung on a white gallery wall. The left painting depicts a snail shell and a tree stump with a moon and blue sky. The right painting illustrates a room with a table, chairs, and a window showing a landscape with a water tower and sun.
Two abstract paintings in an art gallery; the left painting features intricate blue, purple, and yellow lines on a dark background, and the right painting depicts a landscape with trees, rocks, and abstract shapes in green, blue, and purple.
Three colorful paintings hanging on a white gallery wall.
Two colorful paintings hung on white gallery walls, one on each side of a corner.
Two colorful paintings on a white wall, one depicting various fountain sculptures on a green background, the other showing a large circular structure with a small green creature and logs on an orange-red background.