| Seobo Park 2008May 1, 2008- May 31, 2008Reception: May 1, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Arario New York is pleased to present Empty the Mind, a
solo exhibition of new works by Park, Seo-Bo, the father of Korean abstract painting.
The exhibition will be on view from May 1 through May 31, 2008, and a reception for the
artist will be held at the gallery on May 1 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.
Since beginning his artistic career in the 1950s, Park, Seo-Bo has been at the
forefront of contemporary Korean art. He is considered his country’s preeminent artist,
credited with introducing Modernism to Korean art. Park’s innovative combination of
traditional Korean sensibility with the Western abstract art movements of Minimalism,
Art Informel, and Color Field painting has made him an influential figure to generations
of Korean artists.
E mpty the Mind will feature the brightly-colored, monochrome abstract paintings for
which Park, Seo-Bo is best known today. Through a labor-intensive, multi-step
process, the artist creates Minimalist paintings with complexly textured surfaces.
Several layers of mulberry paper – known in Korea as hanji – acrylic paint, and ink are
built up onto each canvas. Before the layers dry, Park uses a pencil or a narrow
bamboo stick to incise thin parallel lines across the entire surface. In each painting,
rectangular spaces are strategically carved away, revealing a vivid under layer of paint
and creating what Park calls “Breathing Spaces” amidst the sea of lines. In keeping
with Park’s understated style, these new works juxtapose pattern and emptiness,
restrained form and exuberant color, and Eastern and Western aesthetics.
Park, Seo-Bo’s work has been on view throughout Asia, Europe and the U.S. for more
than fifty years. Among his retrospective exhibitions is, Park, Seo-Bo’s Paintings: Its
Forty Years, at the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul in 1991. He has
received numerous awards, such as The National Medal of Korea (The Medal of
Seokryu) in 1987, The Order of Cultural Merits, Korea in 1994, and the Seoul
Metropolitan Cultural Award in 1995. His work is in the collections of the National
Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul; The Seoul Museum of Art; The Contemporary
Museum of Hongik University, Seoul; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, and the
Fonds National d’Art Contemporain, France. In 1994 he founded the Park, Seo-Bo Art
and Cultural Foundation. He lives and works in Seoul, where he was a Professor at the
College of Fine Arts, Hongik University. This is the artist’s first exhibition at Arario
Gallery New York, though he has previously shown at Arario Beijing.
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