Jongwook Park: One Breath, Many Echoes | 숨·결들
We’re so excited to announce our next Main Gallery exhibition! Jongwook Park’s One Breath, Many Echoes | 숨·결들 will be up from June 12 – July 25. We will be holding an opening reception on June 12th from 6-8pm, during which Jongwook will give an artist talk in the gallery starting at around 6:30pm. We hope you’ll join us to learn more about Jongwook’s practice, and to celebrate his work in this stunning exhibition! We’ll have plenty of snacks and refreshments as usual. Click here to RSVP to the Facebook event.
This exhibition explores how adult language acquisition shapes identity, rooted in my move from Seoul to the bilingual environment of Montreal. At the core of the installation are hand drawings that integrate Minhwa (Korean folk art) and Hangul (Korean script). By removing vibrant colors and breaking characters into unreadable shapes, the work illustrates how one’s own culture shifts and transforms when trying to understand another. The monochromatic imagery becomes a migrant pattern that reflects different methods of communication. These patterns move across mediums—directly on paper, scaled up through digital prints, and becoming undulated imagery by carving into wet clay. Each material presents a different threshold, mirroring the physical and mental effort of adjusting to a new environment. Through the presentation of these various mediums across the space, I aim to visualize the complexities of linguistic adaptation, reflecting human flexibility while showing the slippage through visual fragmentation.
Jongwook Park gratefully acknowledges the support of the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ).
Jongwook Park is a visual artist whose practice is rooted in hand drawing, spanning flat formats (pen drawings, digital prints), three-dimensional ceramics, and motion graphics. Integrating Minhwa (Korean folk art) and Hangul(Korean script), he utilizes a monochromatic palette to explore adult language acquisition, a focus that stems from his own relocation from Seoul to Montreal.
Park holds an MFA in Communication Design from Sangmyung University and a diploma in Animation Art and Design from LaSalle College. His work has been exhibited and published internationally, including in Canada, the United States, Finland, South Korea, and Japan.