Korean Artist ‘Eun Jung Park’

Eun Jung Park was born in 1963, Busan, Korea and she is currently living in NYC, USA.

The picture plane of Eun Jung Park can be read in this context of Art history and humanistic traditional aspect on still life painting. It magnetises the traditional still life painting and rearranges it to contemporary words. However, this reanalysed painting’s approach is quite different from any other still life paintings and also is difficult to label it simply as a painting. In her paintings she first painted a still life and then placed a dense shield of transparent plastic tubes filled with water over the whole canvas, hence the picture on the canvas would be seen through the tubes filled with the water. These works can be categorised as an objet painting in that it applied an object on the painting and can also be categorised as a relief in that it is flat and two dimensional. (Critic, Chung Hwan Koh)

She says,

“In my consciousness there exist, at all times, two simultaneous but different worlds: me and the universe. I am water, fire and air. I am earth, light and I am everything, but at the same time I am nothing. Within this whole world I do not exist independently. I cannot exist separately from any self, just as no other entity can exist differentiated from others. The sky and wind and forest, the sun and sea and birds and stars cannot exist independently, as time and space, exteriors and interiors are indistinguishable. There is only an endless procession of union and dissolution, creation and destruction, within this great entity known as the universe – matter is not existent, nor is it nonexistent.

The work that I am doing—that is to say, painting—is a conflict and a communion between my internal and external worlds, and is created by this powerful conflict and harmony between the two worlds.

Amidst the phenomena that occur in me and in my environment, I strive to contain within myself all that I could perceive, the images, the apparitions that impose themselves upon my senses or my innermost depths, and express these in a single painting. And I hope that my unique method of expression thereof, a method that is neither logic nor reason, will have some aesthetic values”.

Enjoy her work images!

“Fruits”, mixed media, 194 x 679 cm, 2008

“Life Story (Apple) 0918″, mixed media, 165 x 165 cm, 2008

“Pomegranate”, mixed media, 227.2 x 181.8 cm, 2008

“Life Story (Kiwi) 0912″, mixed media, 41 x 31.8 cm, 2009

A solo show by Eun Jung Park, ‘A Life from the Beginning’.

We are glad that Ms Eun Jung Park has had her solo exhibition in the States. People in NYC must be impressed by her own way of depicting the stories. Medium used and her techniques are unique and her works are great as a piece that is a part of a whole or as a whole. Depends on the distance to look them and different distances give audiences different aspects of the images.

04 Jan - 29 Jan 2010

At Hutchins Gallery, NYC

A critic Jonathan Goodman siad as below;

” Eun Jung Park has only been in America for a few months, but clearly she understands the nature of the challenges that face her. Both her degrees, the B.F.A. and M.F.A, come from Hongik University, where she picked up her realist painting skills. Ambitious in nature, Park has come to New York to participate in the mainstream art world, rather than socialize and work only among Korean artists, as so often happens here. Her art takes two forms: a series of abstract canvases, which demonstrate the influence of the New York School without succumbing to its now historical blandishments; and a series of works in which there are two components to the picture plane—the first is a transparent plastic rack, with shelves of small ampules filled with colored liquids, behind which is a realistic painting. The paintings are often difficult to see, being obscured by the small vials set up in front of them. In a way the “veil” in front of the painting serves several purposes: first, it demands that the viewer focus hard on seeing the image in the back; second, like much good contemporary art, the work stands in between the artistic categories—in this case between assemblage and painting; and third, the vials refer to a time when Park was sick—as a young girl, she spent time in Korean hospitals, receiving injections of medicine taken from the vials much like those she uses for her art.

This period of illness, of major psychic importance to the artist, is taken up and given metaphorical significance with the inclusion of the glass ampules. Brilliantly, Park uses the physical symbol to stand for actual experience, beautifully transforming a difficult part of the artist’s life into something visually arresting, as well as being healing in regard to Park’s earlier illnesses. Seen dimly through the rows of vials are Park’s expertly handled realist paintings, in some cases abstract while in others representational. The fact that the viewer must reach the painting by peering into the work and through the vials that can pretty thoroughly obscure it makes this work not only beautiful, but also symbolic of the way we see. Part is using a difficult piece of her experience to make works that transcend their past and establish a dialogue with her audience. In this way, she finds a positive outlook despite her years of physical weakness as a young women. So it happens that the work triumphs over personal adversity—doing so in terms that maintain the distance needed to make art effective”.

Oriental VisArt hopes the Artist Eun Jung Park will have great success of the exhibition and get a chance to be known to the people in the States.

Life Story(apple) 0918, mixed media, 165x165cm, 2008

 

Life Story(kiwi) 0912, mixed media, 41.0×31.8cm, 2008

 

Life Story(red apple) 0910, mixed media, 162.0×130.3cm, 2008