SUN-KYO PARK   

Sun-Kyo Park joined us from Seoul, South Korea in January 2022. During his visit Park noticed significant cultural differences between London and Seoul, particularly differing attitudes to social hierarchy and personal space. In South Korea, the formality with which you greet someone is determined by their age or life experience and individuals are consequently grouped into 'younger' or 'older'.

To Park, art is “thinking with the head closest to the sky (ideal) with feet on the ground (reality)”. In the artist's ideal world, we would live as equal individuals in society. Exploring this in his Crosslegged series, each work features a lone character sitting crosslegged in a cramped space. The tight borders of these works communicate feelings of claustrophobia, alluding to the social and political pressures faced living in South Korea. To create these characters Park takes inspiration from street fashion, exaggerating the individuality of the sitter, whilst merging parts of himself into the paintings. Developing this series on the project Park produced two works, taking influence from London and the Londoners he met, including a painting of past artist in residence Marcus Nelson, decked out in Burberry check.

Parks final work on the residency I Crossed the Line (2022) addresses crossing the boundaries that restrict the subjects of his earlier works. For Park the title of this work has two meanings: the first being a physical crossing or journey and the second being a more metaphorical departure of the artist’s comfort zone.

Park's work has been exhibited in several exhibitions, including, Familia, WOAW Gallery, Hong Kong (2021); Summer Camp, GR Gallery, New York (2021); Fresh, Padre Gallery, New York (2021); Nice Guys Live Forever, Moosey Art, London (2021); Eulji Art Fair (2020); Shinwa Auction, Tricera Gallery (2020); Morak Morak, Gallery iLHO, South Korea (2020); Ultimate3, Lydia Gallery, Seoul (2020); Objects, CICA Museum, Gimpo, South Korea (2020); SEEA 2019, Seongnam Arts Center, South Korea (2019); KOREA, Piccadilly International Art Museum, South Korea (2019) and Young Creative Korea 2018, Ara Art Center, Seoul (2018).