Boise Coop Wine Shop

Mongolian Dreams: A Wine Shop Art Exhibit

• November 15, 2007

A Photographic Presntation by Ninjin Puntsag

Wine and art are natural companions. There are those who would assert that wine making itself is an art with the final product designed to appeal to the senses. To help promote the work of local artists as well as guest
artists from around the world, the Boise Co-op Wine Shop is sponsoring the first of our opening exhibitions on Saturday, November 24. For this premier show we are excited to have with us Ninjin Puntsag who will exhibit her Mongolian Dreams collection. Ninjin, a young photographer and artist originally from Mongolia, has been living in Paris for the past few years fine tuning her photographic skills. Her show will display a hauntingly beautiful collection of landscapes, people, and a series focusing on form, shadow and light.

Her works will be on display at the Wine Shop through February

The life of Ninjin Puntsag is one to which few westerners can relate. Having been born in Havana, Cuba and then living in such exotic and diverse settings as France, Haiti and Mongolia set her on a unique course. Through that background and life experiences she has learned to capture a moment in time that others might not see.

Ninjin was born in 1977, the daughter of the Mongolian Ambassador to Cuba. She was raised and taught in Russian Elementary Schools on the Island before going to Russian Secondary school in Mongolia. While in Mongolia she briefly explored her artistic side at an ArtCollege in Ulan Bataar. However being the daughter of a diplomat has its expectations and she returned to Cuba where she enrolled in (Foreign Relations) Preparatory School. She studied at the University of Havana focusing on English language and literature before taking a job with the Mongolian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Her path seemed predestined and Diplomacy School in Santiago, Chile in 2000 was a turning point in her life. There she met her future husband, another Diplomat from Chile, Daniel Ortiz. Work brought her back to Mongolia in 2001, and there she decided to end her career in Foreign Relations, moving back to be with her sweetheart in Chile. Daniel and Ninjin have lived together on Chilean assignments in Haiti and most recently in Paris, France

Though Ninjin did not pick up a camera until 2006, photography was her preferred expression from the beginning. She enrolled in Art School in Paris and was exposed to paint, sculpture, fashion design, and a host of other mediums but her mark would be made with a camera. She finds photography allows her to better express the inspirations she had had with music, poetry, and feelings of melancholy and the ephemeral. She also uses photography to share glimpses of the exotic world she has lived in and explored. Her pictures have been used by UNESCO, as well as receiving many awards from esteemed critiques in her realm.