Installation view of Park Gwangsoo solo exhibition 《Copper and Hand》 © Hakgojae Gallery

The paintings, filled with explosive, writhing brushstrokes, awaken dormant instincts as if responding to a “call of the wild.” Spiraling through a vortex with no clear beginning or end, they propel the viewer from the primitive to civilization and back again. At the center of this dynamic is the human figure, asserting its presence more strongly the longer one looks, enveloped in both brilliance and confusion.
 
Park Gwangsoo’s solo exhibition 《Copper and Hand》 at Hakgojae Gallery in Samcheong-dong, Seoul offers a fresh and unique experience of painting. Despite the writhing, vivid colors and brushwork, the drawing stands out through the vitality of lines characteristic of “bone method brushwork.”
 
The brilliant coloring that fills the canvas, the dynamic sense of speed, and the structural balance and weight achieve a perfect harmony. Moving away from his previous acrylic works, the oil paintings, as the artist notes, have become “more viscous,” yet remain rich and restrained. Even within the flat surface, the paintings convey a sense of dimensionality, the result of the artist’s distinctive brush techniques. By adding and erasing paint, he compresses the strengths of both Eastern and Western painting.
 
The paintings, structured with references from art history, are so original that they resist clear categorization by genre. His childhood love for forests and nature, growing up in Cheorwon, Gangwon-do, is embedded within the work.
 
Art critic Lee Jinmyung commented, “Although figurative painting in contemporary art, Park Gwangsoo’s work reveals compositions reminiscent of traditional landscape painting and approaches a form in which objects and environment merge with the protagonist, as seen in the paintings of William Blake (1757–1827).

Unlike Western linear perspective calculated through geometry and mathematics, traditional landscape painting captures the vivid, lived experience of traversing mountains with the entire body. In this way, Park Gwangsoo’s experiential painting opens a new horizon for painting.”


박광수, 〈무거운 하늘〉, 2023, 캔버스에 유채, 227.3 x 181.8 cm © 학고재갤러리

“The subjects appearing in the paintings often endure harsh conditions. Most endings are failures, but I consider that acceptable. I want the colors in my paintings to be both fully seductive and threatening, and through their intense collisions, I want the world to become extreme.” (Artist’s note)
 
Regarding the somewhat unusual exhibition title “Copper and Hand,” Hakgojae explained, “‘Copper’ and ‘hand’ are metaphors for the origin and process of civilization.”
 
“Within the painting, there appear imperfect masses and humans, who are another mass, carefully shaping them.” The artist, fascinated by the color of copper as it shines, oxidizes, and turns light blue, applied copper tones to human hands and feet in this exhibition. By referring to both the maker and the made as “masses,” the work contains various meanings derived from expressing the relationship between the two.
 
The philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) referred to the hand as “the visible part of the brain.” From this perspective, the dazzling paintings that reach the pinnacle of brilliance can be seen as the cry of the artist’s “brain-like hand,” captivating viewers with a primal force striving to navigate a chaotic world. (It is interesting that the hands of the figures within the paintings are depicted unusually large and vividly.)
 
Hakgojae Gallery stated, “Park Gwangsoo is not only receiving enthusiastic responses from the domestic and international art markets, but is also drawing strong attention from institutions and art professionals as a representative young artist,” adding that “the works in this exhibition (approximately 10 million KRW for a size 100 canvas) have already sold out.” The exhibition runs until December 9.

References