Based in the Alps for more than 25 years, Ji-Young Demol Park has developed a body of pictorial work whose expression lies at the intersection of her Korean culture and that of the West, which she has deeply internalized.
Fascinated by the Alps and a true artist of the field, Ji-Young Demol Park constantly explores the region, always accompanied by her sketchbooks, leporellos, and travel scrolls, in which she records in ink the emotions she experiences during her wanderings.
Back in her studio, these drawings and visual notes become the foundation for large-format ink works featuring vigorous lines drawn with a reed pen, ethereal washes, and eloquent negative space.
During her hikes, in search of the ideal vantage point, she allows herself to be absorbed by the space around her. During these hikes, she notes that, at times, her gaze—almost in spite of herself—is drawn to certain trees, to their shape, their posture, and the way light filters through them. She then pauses in her ascent to sketch the tree or trees that have captured her attention.
Through these portraits of trees, created in ink and watercolor, which she presents in this exhibition, Ji-Young Demol Park conveys—rather than merely depicts—her fascination with these trees and awakens in the viewer a sensitivity, sometimes dormant, to the beauty of nature.
