About the Exhibition:
Andrew Park’s The Places We Built draws inspiration from 19th-century American Realist painters like Edward Hopper, George Bellows, and Grant Wood, reimagining their artistic aims through the lens of the contemporary poor image. This series reflects Park’s Korean-American upbringing amidst a period of rapid technological advancement, presenting a visual diary cataloging a life lived in limbo.
Central to Park’s practice is the concept of the poor image—the compressed, widely shared digital content dominating today’s internet. These images prioritize accessibility over technical quality, challenging elitist value systems and further democratizing visual culture. The Places We Built considers the emotional accessibility of the poor image, focusing on familiar content to structure a collective Korean-American reality. His paintings blend cartoon iconography and other Korean cultural backdrops with classic American idioms, reflecting the sense of displacement and bifurcated identity within immigrant communities.
The Places We Built is on view at Anthony Gallery at 1360 W. Lake Street from May 23rd to June 22nd, 2024.
