Art of Dansaekhwa / PARK DAA WON -박다원 / Now Here: Call for Artist 2014 Korean Cultural Service New York/Art of Tansaekhwa

HanKyung Daily News

(Featured Artist) Next Dansaekhwa Star: Cultural Phenomenon of Park Daa Won

Focusing on Calligraphic Art as
Performance

Pioneering as Korea’s first generation of Post-Dansaekhwa

movement, Park Daa Won show-cases 20 pieces of her well-known “Now Here” series at Joeun Gallery located at Hannam-dong. Exhibition continues until 29
September, 2016.

Working in New York and Seoul,

Park Daa Won’s works have already begun to receive attention from the public
and art critics. Her canvas surfaces embody Eastern philosophies, declaring
life into individual dots, brushstrokes, and space. Recent buzz on Park was on
Samsung Group designating her “Now Here-In Blue” series as an iconic emblem to
represent the company’s New Year’s greetings.

Works occupying the exhibition

space are dots, elegant strokes, and tranquil margins laid out randomly on blue
and brown backgrounds, displaying rhythmic movement and teeming with life.
Visitors leave the gallery in the state of peace, having adopted a new and
salubrious concept of time and space.

Beneath the randomly arranged

dots and lines, the deep colors of the under paintings represent a vacuum inspace, void of matter. Providence of the universe revealed through the canvas
frames act as windows to mother-nature’s therapeutic rays of sunlight and endless horizons of sky and sea.

Park’s visual references of the mysterious universe is
apparent in her deep colors that convey richness and depth. Her works carry hidden energy and impart a sense of freedom.

Park Daa Won’s works start with drawing a line with a brush dipped in single-color paint onto the under painted

canvas. Park’s abstract paintings cannot be but understood by intuition as the works embody the artist’s thoughts and meditation on her relationship with the universe, nature, others and self. Park Daa Won’s bold and decisive strokes
have no reservation, leaving little room for compromise. Although it varies -swift or delayed, firm or fluid – the basis in fundamental energy is implied
from the tips of her powerful brushstrokes.

Park’s works are not necessarily planned a priori or intended for some formative configuration; rather, her coincidental brush touches aim at some
unique forms enabled by some sort of spirituality. Coexistence of contingency and certainty is combined with synchronicity of freedom and control; and these
series of events breathe life onto the flat surface, thereby escalating tension throughout the canvas. These are evidence of the artist’s intense efforts to
control and manage a given framework.

Inspired by Park Daa won’s body of works, the art
community is preparing to spring-off on a new monochrome movement stemming from
Dansaekhwa. In 2012, major Korean
monochrome artists Lee Ufan, Park Seobo, Ha Chong-Hyun to name a few, participated
in a show titled ‘Dansaekhwa: Korean Monochrome Painting (National Museum of
Contemporary Art)’ curated by art critic Yoon Jin Sub. In his recent essay for
Park Daa Won, Yoon commented, "Through the course of inhaling and exhaling,
and by biding with one’s time, Park shows her unique body of works with
spontaneous and intuitive lines by summoning all her energy and spirits – an
artistic performance and cultural phenomenon worth noting. Park Daa Won’s
monochromatic paintings are both the Book of Life and the ultimate medium that
reaches for the primitive universal phenomenon. It is clear then, that Park’s “Now
Here” series are products of seasoned calligraphic skills stemming from ancient
philosophy. What is the trajectory of her brush stroke? Where is the end of its
journey? We are left wondering about the next chapter of Park Daa Won’s
artistic career."

Exhibition Opening

The Korean Cultural Service New York is pleased to announce the third exhibition for the ‘Call for Artists 2014’ season,

<In Retrospect: Looking Back, Inside.> Wednesday, September 3 - Thursday, September 25

Opening Reception: Wednesday, September 3, 6-8 PM

Gallery Korea of the Korean Cultural Service NY (460 park ave. btw 57 & 58st, NY)

Art of Tansaekhwa / PARK DAA WON 단색화-박다원

Art of Tansaekhwa / PARK DAA WON 단색화-박다원

A Canvas of Bold Brush Strokes
"Now Here" Painter Park Daa Won
Park Rhai-kyoung
1.
Park Daa Won strokes her brush without reserve at a decisive moment allowing for no compromise. Her recent series <Now Here> obviously suggests the clues about what she has actually continued to pursue. Although it varies - rapid or slow, strong or soft - her brush stroke or her implicit display of power is very bold fundamentally. Here, no phenomenal world is hinted, and no world of the objects is not implicit in terms of the form organic or inorganic. So to speak, it is a kind of abstraction. Anyway, we need to make it clear here. That is, we can hardly approach her painting from the perspective of the abstraction in general. In her abstract paintings which cannot but be understood by intuition are contained her thought and meditation on universe and herself, nature and herself, or other people and herself. Thus, assuming that each of her abstract canvases has contained the figurative world she has long been concerned with in any way, we cannot but approach her paintings differently. We even are tense unconsciously, not knowing when a line or dot appears to imply such figurative world. Namely, it can be said that some situation that cannot be defined conclusively is always contained in her canvas. So, if we assume that Park Daa Won's <Now Here> series feature a space of moment when universe or nature or other people meet us, we will be pleased to see her paintings, while understanding her world of art naturally. In other words, we need to mobilize our intuition rather than logic to approach her paintings more effectively and earlier...............................................................................................................................................................