NEW YORK, NY.- Carpenters Workshop Gallery | New York is presenting the first US solo exhibition of Korean designer Wonmin Park, Plain Cuts, from January 24 to March 10, 2018. Launched last October at PAD London and subsequently at Carpenters Workshop Gallery | Paris, Park’s new collection of limited-edition patinated aluminum extends Park’s inquiry into the simplicity of forms.

His practice is discernibly minimalist, and his use of light and color is radical, creating evanescent projects, which give the impression that his pieces have no limits.

From his observations of the world and his environment, he proposes a contemporary design with a contemplative attitude, which finds its roots in Korean tradition and philosophy. This approach is exemplified in Plain Cuts, a new series that focuses on the abstract geometry of construction and virtual lines, which produce the volume. Plain Cuts underlines Park's investigation into the materiality of things. This exploration is inspired by Park's interest in architecture.

Originally from Seoul, South Korea, Park is a graduate from the Design Academy of Eindhoven. After working with a series of prestigious design companies in the Netherlands, he founded Studio Wonmin Park in 2011 in Eindhoven and later established a creative studio in Paris in 2015. His determination to produce emptiness and eternity may be an answer to the overproduction of designed objects. A certain humility that changes from the over mediatization of some designers, especially issued from the Eindhoven Academy.

Lauded for his extraordinary research on the resin process called Haze, Park's contributions to design have been acknowledged and honored on important platforms such as Design Miami/, Design Days Dubai and Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris. His works now belong to important collections, like the Triennial Design Museum in Milan, and also the Museum of Contemporary Art in Seoul.

WONMIN PARK | INTERVIEW

You are connected to two worlds, Eastern (Korea) and Western (the Netherlands, France). This double nationality gives you a kind of schizophrenia; does it inspire your creation? Could you tell me how it influences your work?

I was born and grown up in Korea. Naturally I learned and experienced the culture, nature, traditions of my country, and the history of arts and crafts and inherited the knowledge of our civilization. During my period Of Studies in the Netherlands at the Academy of Eindhoven, I learned about thinking the concept, in an experimental and drastic way.

In 2015, I moved my studio in Paris, there I feel that I have more control on my work and I learn a lot about furniture and fine art. France has an important history of Art and design. I’m also close to the Carpenters Workshop Gallery that I work with. This cultural background influences my independent tastes and my way of thinking and work. If I had to list the artists that influenced me, I would refer also to Mark Rothko part of the movement of American abstract expressionism, at the end of the Second World War, and a bit later to Donald Judd, Dan Flavin and Cal Andre minimalist artists.

With the « Haze » collection you invented a process with an industrial material (resin), the unknown, the immaterial, an amazing way to erase the limits? What is your goal?

A designer and artist have to deal with material, I have been in contact with many of them during my studies, and each material has its own character and quality. I felt attracted by the quality of resin. I observed the industry that was made with it, like the boats, some of the domestic appliances, mostly started to be produced in the Fifties. I thought that this material could be an answer to my search of imagination, purity and innocence. My idea was to remove unnecessary ornaments, and use the material for its opacity, an inner truth. The light seems to irradiate from the interior. I feel that I am painting with the air, in a way I would like to be able to reproduce the amazing beauty of the sky and propose infinity.

The concept is important for you, but also the effect? Can you tell me your intentions when you use the color?

I conceive very special aesthetics. I like color: It’s a language always reacting on material, texture and light. The object of my work is to capture the essentiality, the intrinsic value of the material, in a drastic, decisive concept. No seduction, I dare and assume my choices. The minimalism of the pieces refers to my envy to be free, opened, as an artist in front of his canvas.

In your last collection « Plain Cuts » exhibited soon, you seem to have changed technique, from resin to metal, but always the same minimalist geometry. How would you qualify and explain this new work?

The idea of this new collection “Plain cuts” is to provide a minimalist and drastic process based on the construction of aluminum sheets with patina technique. Structures are exposed to the surface and it becomes part of the work itself. Patina on Aluminum is like painting on a canvas. I try to use the character of aluminum which has its own color variation with patina and raw color itself, strength with lightweight and texture. I use these elements with a minimal form and structure, in order to maximize the quality.