Installation view of 《Manwha-Kyung》 © A-Lounge Contemporary

A-Lounge presents the two-person exhibition 《Manwha-Kyung》 by Mira Park and Hyunjeong Lim from June 21 to July 2, 2022. The exhibition was conceived to explore the diverse forms of imaginary worlds connected to reality that appear in the works of both artists.


Installation view of 《Manwha-Kyung》 © A-Lounge Contemporary

The visual tension created between Mira Park’s monochromatic compositions and Hyunjeong Lim’s vibrant colors recalls the mesmerizing experience of peering into a kaleidoscope during childhood. At first glance, the worlds beyond the densely populated scenes of tiny writhing characters resemble the dreamlike fantasies of a child. Yet upon closer inspection, unsettling realities emerge in countless forms—drooping plant-like fingers, spiders trapped inside glass cups, figures with hollowed-out faces, and people wearing inverted cones on their heads.
 
Mira Park explores hidden presences lurking beneath the surface of urban life, translating them into monochromatic paintings made with oil mixed with cement powder or into intricate pen drawings. The conflicts and anxieties filling contemporary life appear in her works as severed bodies, thorn-covered trees, and sharp tools such as scissors and sickles. Holes appearing throughout her works symbolize psychological states such as depression, anxiety, loss, and alienation.

At the same time, the pitch-black darkness visible beneath these holes suggests the infinite unknown world that may lie beyond the collapse of bleak realities. The space beyond the hole is filled with the precious secrets once cherished in childhood, as seen in Unspeakable Secret(2022), and the hole functions as both a gateway and a point of connection and beginning with reality, as in Connection and Beginning(2018). The reason Park’s images filled with negative symbols ultimately appear dreamlike and fairy-tale-like may lie in the artist’s quiet gesture of consolation extended toward those struggling through difficult lives.


Installation view of 《Manwha-Kyung》 © A-Lounge Contemporary

Hyunjeong Lim has been influenced since her studies in London by Northern Renaissance artists such as Bosch, Bruegel, and Dürer, whose works explored imagination, dreams, and mythology. Her densely woven compositions—constructed from personal experiences recognizable only to the artist herself—belong to the realm of the unconscious, where memories arise spontaneously rather than through logical narrative. Although figures appear clearly, their faces are often cut away beyond recognition, and forms with recognizable references become fragmented and combined in unexpected ways.
 
As a result, viewers are invited to move freely across the boundary between consciousness and the unconscious, pausing wherever they wish to explore deeper layers of their own interior worlds. Yet the surreal scenes constructed by the artist do not function as passages to expose the darkest aspects of humanity. Rather, they operate as devices that allow the artist’s experiences to meet the viewer’s perception at a point beyond conscious thought. Just as the recent series ‘Dream Hawaii’(2021) and ‘Study of Book of Hours’(2022) offered encouragement to people living through the pandemic era, Lim’s world is grounded in a belief in the positive energy generated through empathy.
 
This exhibition includes Mira Park’s paintings as well as a drawing animation and an installation work. Hyunjeong Lim will present together a number of works that had not previously been properly introduced in Korea since her move to the United States in 2018.

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