Lot 1717: PARK SU HYUNG

PARK SU HYUNG
(B. 1983)
Rise 1; Rise 2; & Flow
three oil on canvas
194 x 96.5 cm. (76 3/8 x 38 in.) x 2 pieces; 130 x 130 cm. (51 1/8 x 51 1/8 in.) (3)
Painted in 2009 (3)

Seoul, Korea, Gallery Jung, 4th YAP (Young Artists Project), 3-11 August 2009 (Rise 1 and Flow exhibited).
Seoul, Korea, Hong Ik University, 23-28 November 2009 (Flow exhibited).

Park Su Hyung excels in using repeated organic forms to create a fascinating visual image in his paintings. Rise I, Rise II, Flow (Lot 1717) and Daily (Lot 1718) featured here depict crowds of people swarming through the monotony of everyday life and express his concern and anxiety towards the problems of urban cities.

Rise I and Rise II shows the artist's visual interpretation of personal advancement or "survival of the fittest" in modern societies. Each small entity in the picture that mutually jostles and steps on the shoulders of another endeavors to pursue social success. The image is a close summary of modern societies in the artist's eyes - if one fails to maintain the momentum in laddering up, one may be drowned by the surging currents of people. Alternately, Flow employs the stacking of human forms to enhance the depth of space in the painting. Without having a fixed direction of movement, the crowds, having lost their resilience and vitality, seem to be trapped within the arbitrary flow of everyday life and forced to be bound by social conformities. The artist has depicted in his works how people invariably compete with each other for survival. These colorful tiny human beings of indistinct characteristics can represent any one of us - despite the fact that we are perpetually surrounded by each other and are interdependent in daily life, we exchange little genuine emotions.

Daily focuses on the repetitive and mundane daily life. The artist employs tilted human forms of various orientations to describe the rhythm of the drifting and roaming crowds. These dull routines are materialized under Park Su Hyung's brush as an image of minute particles floating within a gigantic mass, with individuals stripped of autonomous consciousness and emotions, silently drifting with the tides of the social pulse. Park Su Hyung extracts from average scenes of daily life and condenses them into Daily. Through tangled figures of vibrant colors and complex imageries, his works provide a reflection on everyday life, and also remind of the importance in stopping to ponder about the hectic and hasty pace of life.