Moments of comfort

Park Jiyoung SOLO EXHIBITION

2023. 03. 04 - 18

1-3F, 80, Samcheong-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul, Korea




Artist Park Jiyoung

Park Jiyoung works between fine art and illustration. Her studies in design at Daedeok University (Daejeon, Republic of Korea) informs her cross-pollination of practices, aiding her craft and practice across book covers-including numerous bestsellers-film posters, album covers and more traditional artwork. Indie musicians and new-age music artists have particularly taken to her diffuse pastel colors and distinct-yet-ageless style, commissioning her works that can be found in album shop displays as well as online streaming services for musicians such as Yun DDanDDan, Damsone Gongbang (lit. Damso’s Little Workshop), Lee Jongmin (Daniel), Jieunsong, Saeju, and Kim Kyoungtae, Since 2015, her works have focused entirely on the fine-art of painting in digital media.

Landscapes consist most of Park Jiyoung’s works. The tranquil splay of nature’s rolling hills, greenery, tree lines, sometimes with roads and other structures, are sights that the artist personally enjoys; many have been encounters from her long walks and travel destinations. Most of her paintings are connected to real-world landscapes and sights that have helped move her brush, but imagination blurs in at certain threshold with elusive uncanniness, like a utopian vision.

Her digital canvas captures the notion of time and passing seasons through the expression of transient light and shades immediately familiar as nature’s gentle colors. In her works, there are people-sometimes just an individual-as miniscule subjects within the landscape, identifiable as family, lovers, friends, or even herself.

The contemplative, expressionless figures appear protected and comforted in the warm and vast embrace of nature. A quiet restfulness exists there, be it a person walking their dog down a sunny street, a person sitting on a bench, or a person leaning up against a tree. The panels are rich with pause that modern living tries to abbreviate. We encourage visitors to take that pause for just a moment and allow the gaze to slowly wander into the frame. Find the silence that the bustling rhythm of life has forgotten. Be at its center.



<ARTIST NOTE>

I paused what I was doing for a moment and stepped away from it all.

I thought back to the end of the verdant footpath I had strolled down, appreciating the serene beauty of nature.

Sunrays breaking through the branches and leaves, the rustling and swaying of foliate shadows, the sound of the wind’s caress and the birds’ cheers, the calm glistening of the distant waters each ripe with light and saturating my heart.


Nature provides me with the seeds to my work. The landscapes and sights I encounter in my travels and walks, the notion of time and passing seasons through the expression of nature’s transient light and shades—they blossom and grow within, permeating my heart with peace and comfort.

My works are immediate records of those moments, or recollections of them through current emotional states. Sometimes my works depict the whole landscape as I had seen it, but sometimes my works merge parts of different places that I liked. It can result in emphasis, or something new and completely imaginary.

I paint quite ordinary and mundane landscapes, but if you would take pause and pay attention, the landscapes will tell you heartwarming stories. Take a moment to let the story draw you in and unto the center-stage as its protagonist and challenging you to take pause.

ART WORKS

PARK JIYOUNG
Afternoon in the forest

Oil on canvas

33.4 x 24.2 cm

2023


PARK JIYOUNG
Rest

Oil on canvas

45.4 x 37.9 cm

2023


PARK JIYOUNG
Evening glow

Oil on canvas

45.5 x 53 cm

2023

PARK JIYOUNG
Serene

Oil on canvas

53 x 45.5 cm

2023


PARK JIYOUNG
One spring day

Oil on canvas

145.5 x 112.1 cm

2023


PARK JIYOUNG
The tree

Oil on canvas

145.5 x 112.1 cm

2023