Mon Dieu Projects is a unique art gallery in Los Angeles that showcases emerging and established artists with a focus on idiosyncratic multilingual mashups of style and culture. The gallery was founded by Juno Youn, a South-Korean native Canadian with 25 years of experience in the art world, and Spencer Walker, a writer and creative executive with a diverse background in animation, publishing, and pop-up dining. The name “Mon Dieu” reflects the gallery’s Montreal roots and its roster of eccentric artists. The gallery has received international acclaim, and its founders are known for their provocative curatorial choices. Learn more about Mon Dieu Projects in today’s Maker Monday.
Artist: Andrew Morrow.
Andrew Joseph: What’s one thing people don’t know about you?
Juno Youn: Between us, I am a beauty school drop-out. Shhh. I was training to be a couture hairdresser, but a chance trip to Europe led to a job photographing the behind-the-scenes life of circus clowns. This turned me around towards a life as an artist and I accidentally became a gallerist.
AJ: What’s something you always travel with?
Spencer Walker: I have traveled with a lined composition notebook since I was a kid. Freehand writing is often how I reach creative breakthroughs without digital distractions. They are great on long haul flights or on a beach where sand won’t mess them up. Besides, no one will ever steal a notebook. And if someone does… Sorry, bub. My handwriting is so atrocious, even I can’t read it sometimes.
Artist: Ian Stone.
AJ: Must-have clothing item everyone should have in their closet?
JY: Man, woman or nonbinary, a crispy white dress shirt is the single most essential item of clothing anyone can own. It is sharp and looks good on everyone. I never travel without one. You can dress it up with a blazer and tie, or dress it down with jeans.
AJ: Are you a good cook? If so, what’s your specialty?
SW: Some people think so. I did cook in a few restaurants and had a cookbook published. My cooking specialty is winging it. I have a knack for making multi-course meals out bearish cupboards and expiring produce. Winging it is also how I’ve approached my professional life, to mixed results.
Artist: Sean Mundy.
AJ: What are three binge-worthy TV shows/Movies that you’ve been watching?
JY: The Queen’s Gambit screams girl power, which I am all about. I can also relate to overcoming childhood trauma.
White Lotus’s commentary on the hidden horrors beneath the shiniest exteriors speaks to me. The only thing that can make you happy is YOU. “These gays. They’re trying to murder me”, is one of the funniest lines of 2022.
Squid Game celebrates the spicy Korean in me. I love that the entertainment of my homeland is finally having a long-deserved moment. And, I played all those games as a kid!
AJ: Who do you want to write your obituary?
SW: Chat GPT in the voice of Hunter S Thompson. The algorithm would spit out a series of generic platitudes and derivative wisdom about a life well lived. “Spencer was an abdominal force whose screams into the void somehow echoed back to him and gave him a sense of purpose.”
About the Makers | Juno Youn is a South-Korean native Canadian, who has been in the gallery game for a quarter century. 1999 was the year this Ontario College of Art and Design graduate crossed the rubicon as an art gallerist with SPIN Gallery, Toronto. After shaking up the local art scene with cutting-edge style, and legendary parties, including performances by Diplo, Chromeo, and Peaches, Juno moved to Montreal. There, Galerie Youn was born in 2013 and has been showcasing emerging artists to international acclaim ever since. Galerie Youn was awarded Best of the City from Time Out Montreal in 2021, and Juno was honored on The Globe and Mail’s List of Canada’s Best Dressed in 2018.
Spencer Walker has been art-adjacent his entire life coming from a family of artists and collectors. Previously, an animation writer and creative executive at Nickelodeon, Disney, and Cartoon Network, a blogger turned author of “Cook To Bang”, published by St Martin’s Press, a children’s book author, a restaurant reviewer for New York Magazine, and the mastermind of renegade NYC pop up Rooftop Supperclub. Spencer’s background is vast and eclectic. Life changed when Spencer fell in love with a humanitarian he met producing a TV pilot in Bangladesh, then followed her to the Philippines and Yap Island, Micronesia for five years, where he was a freelance writer, and learned how to spearfish. Spencer returned to LA with his wife and feral island dog just in time for Covid, and they had a pandemic baby.
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