Former 'Namunnip Sairo' Park Hyang-sook

October 7 to November 10 at Blue One Gallery (15-1 Insadong 5-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul)

From Brave New World / 40x40x3.5cm / Acrylic on canvas / 2020

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] The exhibition "Between the Leaves" by artist Park Hyang-sook, who depicts the world of innocence, will be held from the 7th of this month until November 10th at Blue One Gallery in Insadong, Jongno-gu.

Park Hyang-sook's works showcased at Blue One Gallery carry a message of hope.

Park Hyang-sook graduated from Tama Art University in Tokyo, Japan, and majored in painting and oil painting at the same graduate school. She was a promising disciple of the Korean art master Lee Ufan, a professor at that university. Although she holds a doctorate in art studies, she devotes even more passion to her work as an artist.

Between the Leaves 'Artist's Note'

The foundation of my work that does not change even as time passes

is lyricism.

The reason I started my work and

my aspirations, too,

when looking at objects, nature, and humans,

might be the tenderness I feel.

As I continue my work,

layers of art historical concepts and

scholarly knowledge accumulate one by one,

but what I always return to in my work like a refrain is

emptiness, loneliness, melancholy, nostalgia, and longing for someone.

From the first line of Albert Camus's The Stranger, which I read long ago,

'Today, mother died. Or maybe yesterday,'

I thought about how fatal the death of emotion would be for an artist.

Even if the world is chaotic, absurd,

and meaningless,

the artist must look at the sky seen through the leaves,

admire it,

and shed tears, shouldn't they?

The gift sprouted from such an artist's heart

will wet the world

and shine as a ray of light.

Today, too, I look at the bright blue sky through the leaves.

- Park Hyang-sook

When life is lonely, exhausting, and difficult, works that allow one to dream of small hope and a bright, vivid future through the leaves have gathered in one place.

At a time like now, when hearts are closed, I hope they will be gradually opened through this small exhibition, which opens under the title "From a Brave New World."

From a Brave New World / 40x40x3.5cm / Acrylic on canvas / 2020

Expressing innocent children who could burst out at any moment through the soap bubble series, the colorful shapes blooming inside the bubbles in red, blue, yellow, and more, and the meanings contained within them are depicted with magical expressions that allow anyone to imagine. The accidental movements created by shadows and the fleeting light are portrayed.

The three-dimensional worldview and the energy generated from the works seem to give meaning to the exhibition, just like the title "Between the Leaves," by forming a sense of space in the gallery.

Playing with Soap Bubbles / Variable installation / Marker paper / 2007-2019

Dreaming of simple happiness, the works created on transformed canvases share the overall concept of "Under the Same Sky." When the artist was returning to Korea, she looked down from the airplane and thought about how many small pieces come together to form villages, seas, rivers, mountains, and forests as one, which inspired her work. - Park Hyang-sook -

Soap Bubble Play/Variable Installation/Maca Paper/2007-2019

Landscape, Trees There. 4/1 Round Canvas, Acrylic on Canvas, 2019 Landscape, Trees There, Hexagonal Canvas 30cm, Acrylic on Canvas, 2019

There are also countless small fragmented images like arbitrary signs with descriptive characteristics and rich images resembling her delicate heart that subtly moves others.

The very existence of a sincere painter becomes color and form and is reflected. Therefore, it can be said that these paintings, which are placed before our eyes now, are completely unrelated to falsehood and consistently portray the artist herself.

- Kunio Motoe, Honorary Professor and Museum Director, Tama Art University -

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.