Mina Cheon (천민정) (b. 1973, Seoul, South Korea) is a global Korean new media artist, scholar, and educator who lives and works between Baltimore, New York, and Seoul and exhibits her political pop art known as “Polipop” internationally. Being a part of the Korean diaspora, Cheon’s art results from a life-time of working with a postcolonial and comparative cultural lens and making contemporary art that is in historic alignment to appropriation art and global activism art, while focusing on North Korean awareness, Korean unification, and global peace projects.
I am a multimedia artist working predominately in encaustic and cold wax. However, I like to explore many materials. My main inspiration comes from the agrarian and coal mining culture of Appalachia, where my ancestors have lived for generations. My experiences and personal history have provided me with a firsthand view of mountain communities, the natural world, and the culture of a specific region. I find inspiration every day from memories, history, industry, and nature.