Eunjung Park: Altered States

April 7 – May 6, 2023

373 Broadway
New York, NY

An opening reception will take place at the gallery on April 7, 2023.

SARAHCROWN is pleased to announce a solo exhibition by Brooklyn-based Korean artist EunJung Park, Altered States. Featuring large scale paintings and ceramic works, the show delves into the state of in-betweenness and the multiple meanings of migration and displacement, following the artist’s practice of creating art in a jet lag state. Altered States will be on view between April 7 – May 6, 2023.

Mimicking the uncanny feeling of jet lag and Park's altered states, the gallery will be open during late night and early morning hours, in varying time zones. Please keep in touch with us about our unusual schedule.

Night Ramble 1, 54 x 70 IN, oil on canvas, 2023

Jet lag is not a foreign concept for anyone who ever crossed multiple time zones. In a way, jet lag is a state of dissonance, a lack of sync between the inner and the outer. Park, living between Seoul and New York, experiences this multiple times a year. In the witching hours the artist spends in a hazy, yet waking state, which she describes as “representative of spatial and temporal dislocation,” the rest of the world sleeps.

Witness, 54 x 70 IN, oil on canvas, 2023

Restlessly, Park takes walks and spends time with nature during these times. Back in the studio, she turns her sleepless strolls into magical representations of animals, trees, branches and roots, and many unknown figures from other worlds. Her muddied colors coexist peacefully with bright yellows and purples peeking through, sometimes forming owls or rabbits, sometimes exotic plants. The viewer, in the waking life, finds clues from Park’s persona in every one of them.

Many Tails, 44 x 54 IN, oil on canvas, 2023

Park’s magic lies not only in this wonderland, but in the powerful emotion radiating through the saturated, thick, potent paint that conveys a feeling of being confused, trapped, and out of place. Much like the way effects of the waking world seeps into our dreams, concerns such as identity politics, immigration, and exile find their reflections in these manifestations. “I sometimes feel like my body is a secondary thing that my emotions are dragging around,” Park says. And yet, discomfort and confusion aren’t the only feelings that come with strange dreams: a sense of wonder, an adventure. As dreamers and travelers, the viewers are invited to wander around Park’s work, explore, and find new meanings.

About the Artist

Born in South Korea, Park received her BA from Kookmin University, her MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art, and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in the summer of 2017. Her personal history and experiences as an immigrant led to her interest in adaptation and change in both biological and cultural spheres. Park explores this topic by layering images from multiple sources, such as human biology and botany. She sees painting as a process of both mutation and migration—as she works, the forms appear, combine, transform and displace one another, spread throughout the canvas, disappear, and evolve into entirely new images. They are in a constant state of flux, reenacting the transformations taking place within her at both cellular and cultural levels.

Park’s work has been exhibited at the Bronx Museum, Below Grand Gallery, Doosan Gallery, 1969 Gallery, The Hole Gallery, Vox Populi, the Spring Break Art Show, Napoleon Gallery, the Riggs and Leidy Gallery at MICA, Nanji Publication Center, and SeoGyo Art Center in Korea. She participated in the Bronx Museum AIM Program, the Vermont Studio Center Residency, The Studios at Mass MoCA, and was a Semi-Finalist for the Sondheim Artscape Prize. Her work has been appeared in Brooklyn Rail, New American Paintings, Hyperallergic and Bomb magazine.