Pearl Park (Park, Soon Woo)

Solo Exhibition

2005 4th Pearl Soon-woo Park Solo Exhibition “Stoppage and Erasure”
(ASTO museum of Art, LA, CA)
2003 “X / Pression” (Gallery ASTO, LA, CA)
2000 2nd Art Family gallery Invitation Soon-woo Park going to America Exhibition
(Art Family gallery)
1997 1st Soon-woo Park Solo Exhibition(Duck-won gallery)

Selected Group Exhibigion

2005
“Visual Art Work Shop” under 14th Lantern of East International Art Festival 2005 Project at
Rajamangala University of Technology Rantanakosin Pohchang Campus, Bangkok
“14th Lantern of East International Art Festival 2005 in Thailand, East Center of Culture and Art, Burapha University, Chonburi, Thailand
2004
ASTO International Art Festival 2004 (Gallery ASTO, LA, CA)
1st Jeju International Free Art Festival (Kidang Museum, Jeju, Korea)
13th Lantern of East in Los Angeles (Modern Art Gallery, LA, CA)
“Art Camp”, B.C. Ensenada, Mexico
“Peace Show”, Nagasaki, Japan
Artists to Artists Art Exhibition (Gallery ASTO, L.A., CA)
2003
Artists to Artists Art Exhibition (Art & Actualit'e Gallery, Paris, France)
International Group Exhibition (Gallery ASTO, LA, USA)
3 Women Artists Show X / Pression (Gallery ASTO, LA, USA)
2002
Back to Beautiful Environments (Cho-hyoug gallery)
2001
Art forum of Natural Environments (Yeolrin Art Madang "All")
2000
Regular Exhibition of Il-won Society (Seoul gallery : Press Center)
woon-kyong Lee, Jae-hyong Memorial Exhibition
1999
Gallery Fine Art Festival (Cho-hyong gallery)
Asia Fine Art Invited Exhibition (Se-jong Art Hall)
Regular Exhibition of 30th Il-won society (Seoul gallery : Press Center)
A member Exhibition of Korea Fine Art association (Seoul arts center)
International year of older person filial-duty" Exhibition mainstay Artist invited Exhibition
(Yeoido)
1998
Korea New Art Festival recommend artist invited Exhibition (Seoul Municipal gallery)
Korea-Uzbekistan Exhibition(Uzbekistan National gallery)
Seoul Grand pallas Exhibition (Uzbekistan, China, Korea) (Seoul municipal gallery)
Korean fine art public subscription (Seoul arts center)
1997
India fine Art association Invitation delly Exhibition (Delly Centural gallery)
Korea Women fine art public subscription award prize Artist Exhibition
(Cho-hyong gallery)
1996
Russia vical Ulan Bator Exhibition (Mongolian Art gallery)
Toronto, New York Invited Exhibition of East-western painting 32 Artist (Cambridge
Gallery, Academy gallery)
Ulan-Bator Exhibition (Mongolia culture dept. Invitation)
Invited Exhibition of Toronto academy gallery (Canada)
1995
Newzeland Assembly Chairman invite Korea Artist's Exhibition (Newzeland:Auckaland
Exhibitions Center Seoul : New Art Gallery)
Korea Women fine Art public subscription award prize Artist Exhibition (Se-jong Art hall)
1994
New fine Art grand Exhibition (Design package Center)
Fine Art World Exhibition (Seoul Municipal gallery)
Seoul fine Art Festival (Gong-pyong Art Center)
1993
Three Colors Exhibition (Korea, Japan, China)
1992
Korea Arts Creative public subscription award prize Artist Exhibition (New Art Gallery)
1991
New fine Art public subscription award prize Artist Exhibition (New Art Gallery)
1990
Korea Arts Creative public subscription award prize Artist Exhibition
(Design Package Center)

Award

10-24-2000 World Peace Art Exhibition : Certificate of Appreciation
05-28-1999 World Peace Art Exhibition : Special Prize
12-05-1998 Awarded the prize in the Korean Fine Art Exhibition
12-22-1998 Awarded the prize in the Korea Art Creative Association
09-26-1998 AWARDED WITH DIPLOMA OF THE ACADEMY OF ARTS
(from TASHCENT :chairman in Uzbekistan)
11-27-1996 Awarded the silver prize in the Korea Women fine Art public subscription
(management : Seoul Newspaper)
09-29-1994 Awarded the prize in Seoul Art Festival
06-15-1994 Awarded the prize in the Art Newspaper
10-07-1994 Awarded the prize in Fine Art World
07-22-1994 Awarded the prize in New Fine Art
07-12-1992 Awarded the prize in New Fine Art
07-27-1991 Awarded the prize in New Fine Art
12-18-1990 Awarded the silver prize in the Korea Art Creative

Present

Executive Director of Gallery ASTO
Member of the Oil Painting subcommittee of Association
Member of Korean Professional Artists Association
Member of Korea Art group Il-won society
Member of Korea Art Creative Association
Member of the Hangook Environmental Arts Association
Korea Representative Center, International Association of Educators for World Peace (UN IAEWP) : Member of Cultural Arts Committee
General Manager of the U.S. Representative center
A member of Korea Occupation Artist Association

Collectors

West Hotel in South Korea
P. d. a Co., San Francisco, USA.
Yu-Won Co., cho-an, Korea
Dae-jin finance Co., Korea
Bank of Kook-min in Korea
O. Smile Dentistry, LA., USA.
Nash Im, USA.
Kyung-sun Park (president of Han-mi co.)
Woo-yeon Lee
Eunkyoung Sin
Dong-Soo Han
Mija Kim
Ea Young Lee
Heekyong Shin
Byung-seub Beon
Sanghoon Han
Young-Soo Hwang
Chang-Soo Han
Won-young Yu
Eunhee Jeon
Kanb-soo Kim
Myung Sook Park
Seok Bong Jeong
Aea Kyoung Im
Tae woo Han

Works

Criticism

Pearl Soon Park, Abstract Joint of Cultural Harmony:
Painting through Stoppage and Erasure

Gustav D. Yim (Curator of ASTO Museum of Art, Critic)

1. To Choose California

After the Second World War, with the activities by what is called "New York School" which was composed of such artists as Jackson Pollock, Willem De Kooning, Arshile Gorky, Barnett Newman, Clifford Still, Franz Klein, Robert Motherwell and Mark Tobey, the center of the world art became to move to New York in the United States. They preferred abstract art and Expressionism, which were the central concept of Modernism, and distinguished their own tendency of works by the name of "Abstract Expressionism".
Although the activities by these artists made the United States the center of the world art and culture, on the other hand, they isolated modern art from the audience more and more and became to lead Modernism to collapse at last. The audience needed theoretical helps from critics to appreciate their works of art, and it made critics' status higher and brought systematic and balanced development to the art world. However, artists themselves, ironically, had to search critics' theoretical analysis to explain their own works of art. In the process, artists and critics were sometimes antagonistic and sometimes reconciled to each other to preserve their own places. Meanwhile, the audience was irritated most of all. It seemed almost impossible to appreciate modern art without some professional knowledge, and furthermore, a criticism itself, which explains any work of art, also has become an abstract work of art.
Thus, after 1970s, to recover the audience's interest in art itself, movements of reflection occurred reconsidering Modernism that had been heading for the endless extreme. The core concepts of those days were "post", "trans" and "pluralism". Among them, pluralism was easily accepted in California, the center of the West in the US and the center of emigration culture. As a result, experimental and critical activities were advanced, especially in the feminist art movement. At that time, abstract expressionist works were introduced in California and spread naturally with the pluralistic background of emigration culture. As a region in which numerous races and cultures coexist, it may be hard to create one unique tendency of art in California, but it is very clear that this region has fresh and infinite virgin forest of art.
At the beginning of 1990, when Pearl Soon Park first came to California, she vaguely felt how the cultural and environmental elements of California would influence her own works of art in the future. The most important thing was that the experiences of those days decisively helped her firm decision to move in California. And in 2000, Pearl Soon Park came to start her activities based in Los Angeles, the cultural and economic center of California.

2. Nature of California becomes colors

California, neighboring deserts, shows the typical Mediterranean climate and desert climate, which is characteristic of its strong sunshine and small amount of rainfall. Pearl Soon Park's subjects have never been out of nature and human beings during the past 20 years. She tried to express various feelings and changes from nature through abundant colors and tried to paint love, the source of true life of human beings with those colors. The strong sunshine in California helped her struggle against canvas through more bold colors. But it might be difficult for her, who had tried to discover the inner stories from concrete shapes of nature or sometimes from lovely expressions on people's faces, to express herself only with colors. At any rate, nature of California that attracted her in those days gave birth to her works "Expression" series. She composed pictures laying stress on the three primary colors of red, blue and yellow, falling fully into the colors themselves. In her work "Expression in Red", she filled up the big canvas with all the feelings that red colors can have. It aroused an illusion that the sunshine of California was melted into the picture in that way.
Her "Expression" series shows a possibility for the audience to understand a work of art more easily at the border between abstract art and expressionist art. While trying one color to be shown with various feelings, not various colors to be expressed as they are, her works simply convey the key point to appreciate abstract art, which is "to watch colors." It may be any contemporary artist's dream and goal that, through works of art, the audience can create their own stories by recomposing their own experiences. I am not sure how many stories can be born with her painting as the background. But whenever I see the audience gazing into her "Expression" series, I can feel those works are still forming a background for the stories of their lives.

3. Realizing Stoppage, Painting through Stoppage

According to the Eastern aesthetics, which has blossomed especially in Korea, there is an artistic concept of harmony between movement and stoppage. It is explained by the expression of "stillness in movement" or "movement in stillness". It means there should be a strain in a thing that is stopping as if it were in motion, and also there should be a peaceful stillness in a thing that is moving as if it were stopped.
Some people explain paintings with the example of minimalism that stands at the extreme of Modernism. It says paintings can be simplified by three elements, which are a selective space distinguished from daily spaces, colors, and the act of painting. Once these three elements are arranged, the space that is separated from daily spaces can be assorted as a work of art. The next element can be artistic value, but it is so difficult that even the artist himself doesn't know about it, according to this explanation. You may doubt about artists' love for their works of art, with this explanation. But I hope you never lose your expectation about their creative activities for works of art because it is clear that artists are sleepless even in this moment to create their own unique world.
Although the concept of "stoppage" for Pearl Soon Park has its root in the Eastern art philosophy mentioned above, which is the harmony between movement and stoppage, what really awoke her to realize "stoppage" was none other than colors. It is not just a color staying simply in the canvas, but a color endowed with energy of movement. Colors can be endowed with a power to be able to expand toward spaces surrounding the work or toward daily spaces. It does not mean that the typical act of creating a work is stopped but that thinking about painting is stopped. At that moment, colors by the artist can begin to move more freely on the canvas. The artist, at that brief moment, recognizes his/her own work. It is not to "observe" but to "recognize". And then the artist's act of painting itself also stops. Through this, the artist can begin to float about his/her own universe, his/her own world freely with colors.
David Kundtz describes, in his recent book <Stopping>, the moderns are like in a train running on a high-speed railway. He says most people do not enjoy the speed nor expect the train to run faster, but have a feeling of helplessness, looking out of a window blankly. According to Kundtz, what we can do at that time is getting off the train to free ourselves from the compelled speed and choosing our own rhythm. In this age of speed, stopping may sometimes cause a feeling of uneasiness. However, the author insists that "stopping" is not the opposite concept of "advancing". He says that it is more important to know what I want rather than to merely advance and that stopping is not escaping from our lives or from any responsibility. "Stoppage" is entering into life and into the responsibility of life in a new different way. And also, "stoppage" cannot be confused with inactivity or with laziness because there is an interrelation between life and stoppage, he says.
For Pearl Soon Park, "stoppage" is also closely related with these matters of our lives. For her, "stoppage" is to do nothing at that moment. In other words, she cuts off all the moments that are now going on. Through this, she can make an opportunity for the work of art to converse with the audience naturally, and she herself can remember important matters of her life and find an answer about it. Thus "stoppage" is, most of all, not only for creating works of art but also for reflecting her life and keeping it awakening.
Pearl Soon Park, through her recent works created with the concept of "stoppage", hopes that we can realize how much this moment is precious, what we really want in this every moment and how we try to find an answer about our own happiness.

4. Painting through Erasure

One more important concept for Pearl Soon Park to express colors is "erasure". Through "Identity" series created to participate in the international art festival in Thailand at the end of 2004, she could realize that expression has bigger meaning in erasing colors through colors rather than adding colors. In our lives, we reconstitute or erase past memory through present memory, not continuously adding memories. Perhaps it is the relation between life and memory. She doesn't add colors on a canvas but repeats the act of erasing colors through colors. This is interrelated with her "stoppage", and those two concepts work at the same time.
Colors brought from nature or sometimes from specific objects in the world are put on a canvas. And the artist begins her painting not by composing those elements but by erasing them. There is no intention of what should be erased. The act of erasure doesn't need any exact rule, just as the memories of life in disorder are erased through current daily lives or through current memory.
There are memories that cannot be erased however hard we may try. Because they have been inscribed with a strong impression, they become extremely clearer as soon as we approach them for the purpose of erasing them. Our mind will be under occupation of those memories again and the heart will not be calmed down. We flow away into the past infinitely. We cannot have, thus, any intention to erase the past through the present. Similarly, an artist cannot erase colors intentionally. At the moment that the artist thinks about colors and how to erase them, each color begins to insist on its own meaning and value. It is impossible to be controlled. It should be erased just as it goes without knowing how it will be. It is just as the present life naturally covers up the past.
The traces erased and left naturally in that way move freely on the canvas like a living thing. The traces of colors, depending on and interrelating with each other, move the eyes of the audience to each other. While following the traces, the audience slowly begins to make a voyage in the artist's world. This voyage has nothing to do with the size of the picture. There is no limit in a human being's power of imagination. Thus the voyage in the picture even can pass through tens of years in a moment.
She shows, through her own act of erasure, what we can erase and what the purest love of human nature that should not be erased is. And also, she paints through "erasure", showing that if there is a memory that is never erasable, it can be transformed into the richness of life or consideration for the others.

5. Transforming Daily Life into a Possibility

Through "stoppage" and "erasure", she tries to find infinite possibilities not only from her own life but also from the lives of the others. The questions about reflection and happiness in daily life are transformed into the possibilities for the future. Those possibilities give a dream about a new life. The beauty of youth shines as it is, but its biggest power lies in the possibilities for the future.
The artist who hopes to transform daily life into a possibility and tries to practice it shows the will through her colors. If we can say that the soft colors of the front of the canvas show the traces of erasure, the scattered lumps of colors show the will for stoppage. It is an organic union between material space of given canvas and psychological space of stoppage and erasure. I think this union has originated from her sensitiveness and honest reflection on life, and she is trying to accomplish the most beautiful color that exists within a human being.
The cultural harmony between the colors brought from nature of California and the concept originated from the artist's Eastern emotion is currently preparing Californian way of abstraction. I'm sure a strong base of Californian abstraction will be established through her practice to transform daily life into a possibility. My eyes will be on whether her practice will be going on continuously and how strong this harmony will be in the future.