Able Fine Art NY Gallery is pleased to present the gallery’s second solo exhibition with talented artist Dongyoon Park, opening reception on June 18 and running through July 1, 2015.

Finding a balance between the past and the present is core to the message of artist Dongyoon Park. Park is a contemporary Korean artist whose work bridges many apparent differences, and shows that these differences can be embraced or even erased.
Park creates paintings that cannot be described simply as pictures. They are sculptural as well. They cannot be described as simply contemporary, as they are referencing and embracing ancient traditions and forms, as well. They cannot be described as solely conceptual, as they embody the artist’s philosophy and emotional response to his world as well.
All the pieces from the same body of work share the same title – Affectionate Things. The artist describes his approach as his attempt to express the traditional beauty and sensibility of the Korean aesthetic. Park utilizes Korea’s revered Hanji paper to construct bas-relief collage compositions that are once modern, and at the same time touching Korea’s five thousand year cultural history. His deep affection for the world around him and the world that came before him comes through in his choice of shapes, colors and material.
In visual compositions that recall the carefully constructed abstractions of Josef Albers, who greatly influenced so much of contemporary art, Park utilizes squares and lines in contrasting colors. But in Park’s compositions they carry additional meanings. His squares within squares recall the rectangular wooden holes he has come to know in ancient Korean buildings. His curved and undulating, or straight progressive layers of parallel lines are not just formal abstract elements, or a means of creating a sense of movement on a still surface, they are also a reference to Korean temple steps, which symbolize, he states, emotional and spiritual yearning for higher states.
His deep, saturated colors are Park’s evocation of flowers and forms of nature, of traditional patchwork quilts, and of the coat strings of Korean jeogori jackets. But Park is not stuck in the past. Part of his artistic and personal approach to the world, he states, is to embrace also the modern world with affection. As such, he deliberately references contemporary architectural shapes, colors of the city, and the artificial lights and buzz of the electronic devices that have become part of daily life.
The work of Dongyoon Park expresses many layers, both visual and philosophical. His vision is deeply personal, yet speaks to universal themes. It is traditional while utilizing the modern. His Hanji paper constructions are steeped and saturated with rich color, history and meaning.
For further inquires about the exhibition and the artists, contact [email protected] or 212-675-3057.