America, The Beautiful View From An Outsider | Jan 8-16, 2023

Exhibition: January 8 – 16, 2023 | Exhibition hours from 1pm – 6pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, January 14, 2023 from 4:30pm – 5pm
Opening Reception: Saturday, January 14, 2023 from 5pm – 7pm

America, The Beautiful View From An Outsider.

Creating a landscape image in modern art today can be dismissed as a cliche, and it may seem like a work of regret for the love that has already left, but the artist, Park Joon is a photographer who can’t stop recording the world in nature.  He embarked on over 40 cross-country journeys with his small and old car and endured the pain and loneliness as an outsider but poured his passion into his work.

His work is focused in the beauty of the United States, where he lived as an immigrant capturing for future generation. Park Joon, who realized the power to observe things, the ability to find positive beauty, the awe of nature, and love, conformity, and communication through photography. It is said that he learned everything from photography, the power to record it in order to inform society, and the humbleness in dealing with nature and people.

From a young age, he was happy with the work he enjoyed visually, and expressing everything visually was the thing he could do most confidently.  He was an artist accustomed to the habit of conveying what needs to be conveyed through photography. By chance, he saw the exhibition of Ansel Adams, the godfather of American photography, at MOMA and was deeply moved. He’s mother in law bought him a camera and started to study photography in school.

Park Joon first began as a black and white photographer but recently started using color. The New York Times published an article on his black and white works. Joon has had 28 solo shows in black and white and this is his first solo show in color. He often captured the darkness of New York in the dawn. Working as an outsider he showed a candid aspect of American life with his work. Park Joon started as an outsider but never lost his artistic sense as he gradually became accepted as an insider.

Curated by Grace Yeonsook Ji