Kyoungmug Park: Blue Dream

Kyoungmug Park Solo Exhibition: Blue Dream

We live in the present, adrift in a flood of information, gazing at the many forking paths ahead of us — unsure where to go, which path to take, or how far we must walk to reach our destination. Sometimes we hesitate, and almost without thinking, ask those beside us, or a friend, for directions. Artists, too, constantly ask themselves how, what, and why to paint. Even scholars studying the very same great ideas, philosophies, and histories arrive at different interpretations. Everything said about me, about you, about us, may be nothing more than dust drifting in the air. From this we can infer that truth and essence are rooted in the universe itself, and that no one can change them.

The national pride and Korean self-respect of jingyeong sansuhwa — true-view landscape painting — that I heard about more than thirty years ago from Professor Wansu Choi, and which remains etched in my mind, broke free from Chinese conceptual landscape painting by faithfully depicting the scenery of our own land, opening a new realm of distinctly Korean style. Kyoungmug Park carries on that lineage, posing what feels like a Zen dialogue on the nature of essence — questioning past and future through humanistic meditation and contemplation, guided by his own aesthetics of restraint and emptiness, presence and absence. We invite you to this exhibition, where, gazing out at the wind and the blue sea, you might rest your mind for a moment, as if dreaming a blue dream.

SOOHOH GALLERY Director Jisoo Lee