Grim Park’s work can be viewed on three levels. The first is that he is an artist who draws on techniques and themes from the traditions of Korean painting and Buddhist art. The second is that the worldview constructed in his paintings manipulates metaphysical notions closely tied to Buddhist teachings. The third is that, as a gay man, he engages with homosexuality and the gay community as central contexts of his work. As a typical “straight” individual, analyzing the third dimension is not easy for me. However, within the context of art criticism, I believe it is possible (albeit cautiously) to mention Park’s sexual identity as an objective element in forming his artistic world. More than anything, from my perspective, the unique formal completeness of his works alone deserves recognition for their artistic significance.

Although Grim Park graduated with a degree in Buddhist Art from Dongguk University, he began learning Buddhist painting from a professional master painter when he was just twenty years old. He entered university at the suggestion of his teacher, who encouraged him to pursue further study. Perhaps because he learned directly from a field expert, Park’s paintings in color demonstrate an exceptional level of precision and delicacy. Above all, the perfection of his outlines and the flawlessness of his color application distinguish his paintings from many others.

In his early series Hwarangdo, Park idealizes beautiful gay men as if they were mythical figures. The artist describes this as stemming from affection and admiration for them, and from their unfiltered expressions of narcissism and eroticism. These works, where the artist’s interests are directly revealed, convey a strong desire to elevate the subjects to objects of longing and projection through traditional color painting techniques. In works like Dirty? Beauty!?, the artist clearly expresses ambivalent emotions by depicting subjects who express sexual sacrifice and sensuality through the lens of homosexual BDSM (sadomasochism). The 2020 work Bel Ami portrays collective sexual acts among gay men purely from a “queer” perspective. One particularly interesting element is the inclusion of a ‘sara’—a bridal veil traditionally worn by bodhisattvas—used here as a kind of visual screen. This piece presents an unusually explicit depiction, combining Buddhist motifs with gay pornography. These works form an important aspect of Park’s artistic practice using Buddhist iconography.

What is most compelling about reading Grim Park’s paintings is the coexistence of sexual identity and a Buddhist worldview. These two themes, which intersect because it is Grim Park who brings them together, give rise to intriguing issues precisely because their coexistence appears anything but inevitable. It seems difficult to assert which of the two elements—homosexual identity or Buddhist iconography—is more fundamental or significant for the artist. While his identity as a gay man may have formed first, considering his early artistic talent and the fact that he sought out a master of Buddhist painting before even entering university, one cannot help but view homosexuality and Buddhist art as fated yet contradictory dualities within his practice.

In particular, the layered and brilliant color produced by the combination of front and back coloring (dansae and baechae) on silk, followed by the precise and consistent iron-wire line drawing (cheolseonmyo) typical of Goryeo Buddhist painting techniques, marks a key distinguishing feature of his work. From earlier portraits of celebrity figures within the gay community, his style evolved into something entirely new with the emergence of bodhisattvas and tigers in works like Shimhodo - Chosen(2018) and Shimhodo - Descent of the Stream(2019). In Shimhodo - Chosen, gay models whom the artist once admired are dressed as bodhisattvas, choosing the artist’s ego—symbolized by a tiger—as part of themselves. The “gan(揀)” in the title, which means “to choose,” also implies “to cover one’s eyes,” and thus one of the bodhisattvas wears a blindfold and has their eyes closed.

What especially makes these Buddhist-style paintings distinctive is the array of traditional, symbolic patterns rendered in meticulous detail. If one recognizes that the semi-transparent rainbow-colored scarf draped over the tiger, or the floral and feather decorations adorning the bodhisattvas' garments, are encoded with queer connotations—as seen in many of Park’s works—then the brilliant color schemes, ornamental patterns, and above all, the gold and silver hues emanating from the bodhisattvas’ halos foreshadow the overwhelming visual and theatrical presence of his later paintings.

This lavishness, through its systematically arranged iconographic layers, functions as an inter-referential text within each painting, offering viewers structured interpretive pathways. Such an inter-referential feedback system is what we often call an “artistic universe” or “worldview.” Grim Park appears to have built his “worldview” with considerable success. It is a worldview not limited to the theme of homosexuality, but one that gestures toward a broader universality—a journey toward the completion of the self that all subjects pursue.

In fact, it would not be an exaggeration to say that all of Grim Park’s works are related to homosexuality. Because of the specificity of this subject, there is the potential for certain (e.g., heterosexual) viewers to feel alienated or resistant. Indeed, such reactions do occur. Nevertheless, Park’s works transcend the boundaries of that theme. What stands out most is the Zen Buddhist metaphysical narrative that runs through his artistic worldview. Among them, the most deeply explored motif is the Ten Ox-Herding Pictures (Shimu-do or Simwoo-do), a series of illustrations representing the ten stages of enlightenment in Zen practice.

The Simwoo-do depicts a young herdboy setting out to find an ox, leading it home once discovered, and ultimately transcending the distinction between self and other, reaching a level of enlightenment so complete that he returns to the secular world to share it. In Park’s own universe, the ox is replaced by the tiger. Through the theme of Shimhodo (“Seeking the Tiger”), he follows a journey in search of the tiger. The tiger’s salient features—its fierce expression, teeth, limbs symbolizing genitals, and tail—are prominent. Its violence, cruelty, desire, power, and overwhelming charisma symbolize the artist’s own self-identification as the tiger: a being that receives care and love among beautiful male bodhisattvas, yet one that is still young, weak, and endearing—non-threatening. This duality is clearly expressed in the artist’s wish to be accepted by the objects of his desire as an adorable, fragile creature.

In the exhibition 《Sasa》(Gallery TTO), the artist placed the iconography of the eighth stage of the Ten Ox-Herding Pictures, Inwoo Gumang (“both man and ox forgotten”), at the center of the show. Inwoo Gumang represents “a state in which not only the ox but even the self is forgotten—depicted as an empty circle. Once the objectified ox is forgotten, the subject (the boy) no longer exists either. This state, prior to the dualism of subject and object, is the moment of complete enlightenment.”² From this, we understand that the four circular paintings titled Hui ("Return") shown in the exhibition symbolize the essence of Inwoo Gumang.

The artist’s teacher gave him the pen name Jeongwol (井月), meaning “Moon in the Well.” The image evokes the reflection of the moon in a small well. Park transforms the character for “well” (井) into a symbol resembling an endlessly turning wheel or the Buddhist swastika (卍), naming it Wheel (Ryun 輪). On the opposite side, he depicts a circle made of four arcs and titles it Return (Hui 回). The compound “輪回” (transmigration or metempsychosis) denotes the infinite repetition and intersection of spatiotemporal events—a foundational concept in Buddhist cosmology. What prompts Grim Park to link his identity to this worldview?

Solipsism is a doctrine in which the self is considered the center or vanishing point of the world. While such an idea could be dismissed as egocentric, it lies at the core of self-perception for all beings. The quintessential solipsist artist is Marcel Duchamp. His work The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (La mariée mise à nue par ses célibataires, même), which can be interpreted as “The Bride Loves Only Me,” is a definitive statement of solipsistic thought.

When Grim Park discusses his queer identity and the dualism of narcissism and self-hatred, or when he portrays the birth and growth of the tiger—a stand-in avatar of himself—what we witness is a unique variation of solipsism. The universe is built around the self. The disappearance of the self implies the end of the universe. Within this passive-active world, the artist contemplates the self and its history, expanding into a transcendental narrative. Even his mother, within this mythos, is depicted as the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene, Avalokiteśvara (the Bodhisattva of Compassion), and Kṣitigarbha (the Bodhisattva who severs karmic cycles)—all embodiments of benevolent compassion.

The painting Shimhodo - Spring Water(2022) is composed in a triptych format reminiscent of Renaissance painting. It is one of Park’s rare works featuring women as central subjects. The figures can be interpreted as women of various ages representing the artist’s mother, as well as his sisters. Still, all three seem to symbolically encapsulate his mother. The young woman on the left cradles a baby tiger, the central older woman with a golden halo sits on a lotus flower holding a nude adult male, and on the right, a maturing tiger boy leans on a more mature female figure. The temporal flow and narrative progression are evident.

This large-scale painting, measuring 250×340cm, not only adopts the traditional Pietà composition but also shows how the artist’s self and its development parallels the transcendental sublimation of a Christian subject. The astounding emotional projection toward his mother is reminiscent of Roland Barthes—who was also homosexual—expressing his trans-temporal attachment to his mother in Camera Lucida. This work, overlapping themes of salvation and agape love with Park’s fated identity, offers a critical turning point for understanding his work from a new dimension.

Inwoo Gumang encapsulates the solipsistic reflection on the self, the Buddhist doctrine of self-effacement, the ambivalent emotions toward an inescapable identity rooted in endless suffering and wandering, and the unresolved question of how to mediate the relationship between self and world. At the bottom of all this lies the yearning to arrive at Inwoo Gumang.

Regarding the two instances of the word “sa” (사, 四四) in the title 《Sasa》, exhibition curator Hyukkyu Kwon wrote in the preface: “Facing each other, repetition, and rewriting all pass through sasa (師事, to learn from a master), as well as sa (辭, to reject), sa (死, death), and sa (些, something trivial).” According to the artist, the title also refers to sasa (賜死, bestowal of death), where a king grants death to his subject, and to the memory of his own early apprenticeship (sasa 師事) under a master of Goryeo Buddhist painting. The binary structures of birth and death, transcendence and embodiment, warmth and coldness, purity and desire, narcissism and self-hatred, reincarnation and return are consistently repeated throughout Park’s paintings. It is perhaps reasonable to interpret Sasa as signifying “a second death.” This refers to the acceptance of death through individual birth, and the overlapping narrative of the self’s dissolution and resurrection through the learning of Buddhist painting. The artist’s work invites deeper analysis through its multilayered symbolism, ambiguous wordplay, and systematic use of iconography.

Among the new works presented in the 《Sasa》 exhibition are eight vertically formatted paintings, each measuring 120×40cm. These are displayed in two groups of four and titled with enigmatic names such as Enigma (我謎), Double Selection (二揀), Spring Canopy (春蓋), No Two (無二), and on the opposite wall, Solar Drama (日劇), Tiger Flow (虎流), No Tail (無尾), and Lunar Drama (月劇). The central narrative of this series revolves around the birth and growth of the “tiger,” which functions as the artist’s avatar. In Enigma, the tiger’s skin is torn open to reveal the artist’s own body beneath. In Double Selection, two male Avalokiteśvaras—recurring figures in Park’s work—tend to a young tiger while blindfolded. Spring Canopy features a symmetrical, vertically mirrored drapery and a moth orchid engulfed in flames beneath it. In No Two, two tridents from above and below are pointed at the fallen artist, while a young tiger devours his heart. The symbols for “wheel” (ryun 輪) and a moth orchid are engraved at the top and bottom, respectively.

On the opposite wall, Solar Drama shows warm fluid gushing from the tail of a young tiger emerging from behind red curtains, flooding the surrounding space. Tiger Flow depicts a young tiger emerging from a womb, surrounded by blossoming orchids. In No Tail, the tiger’s tail is sliced by a vertical beam of light resembling a blade, while a vanished man’s helmet floats in midair. Finally, Lunar Drama mirrors Solar Drama—a cold fluid instead of warm gushes from the tiger’s tail, emerging between white curtains and freezing the space around it. The symbolism of these motifs is relatively clear. The young tiger, as the artist’s ideal self, is his “alter ego” that must be tamed and led, just like the ox in the Ten Ox-Herding Pictures. Like the ox, the tiger is stubborn and difficult to control, yet evokes various passions and attachments.

The Avalokiteśvaras are both the artist’s objects of admiration and inaccessible beings. The tiger’s tail symbolizes the phallus, and the semen-like liquid gushing from it—warm or cold—embodies both heat and chill. This binary worldview forms the foundational structure of Park’s painting. The moth orchid represents the anus, a central motif in gay sexuality. In Spring Canopy, a flame-engulfed orchid is visible beneath a beautifully adorned canopy. The phallus seen underneath hints at latent erotic allure that spans the queer universe.

What makes Grim Park’s pictorial narrative compelling is that it reflects a person’s growth and the search for identity—and the arduous struggle (guto, 苦鬪) involved in that search—while also being visually astonishing in its beauty. Shimhodo - Sunlight and Shimhodo - Moonlight are double-sided portraits featuring two beautiful male bodhisattvas facing each other. As in Goryeo Buddhist painting, they are surrounded by various ornaments and objects, seated within large halos emitting golden auras. Against a deep black background, the dazzling colors and gilded hues create overwhelming iconography. One bodhisattva, radiant with warmth in a cold world; the other, harboring chill in a warm world—each sits gracefully in opposition. Between them, a tiger cub—resembling a fetus—floats in midair, born once (or twice) from these bodhisattvas. This icon encapsulates all the variations currently unfolding in Grim Park’s work. Looking at these dizzying paintings, one can’t help but wonder what kind of new worldview awaits in the next phase of this artist now approaching his late 30s.



*This article is a special contribution to the “2024 Korean Art Criticism Support” project by the Korea Arts Management Service.

References

• [비평] 박그림 : 불화에 투사된 정체성의 회화
  [Critique] Grim Park: Painting of Identity Projected onto Buddhist Iconography)