Park Min-joon's "Tower of Creed" (2021), left, and "Tower of Eternity" (2021), as well as his two "Statues of Ain" (2022) are on view at Gallery Hyundai in central Seoul as part of his solo exhibition "X." Park's oeuvre contains a splash of magical realism as he adds a surreal touch to the works produced using classical oil painting techniques. Courtesy of Gallery Hyundai

Artist builds circus-inspired universe through paintings, sculptures, novels

By Park Han-sol

Artist Park Min-joon brings to life surreal scenes teeming with blind tightrope walkers, masked clowns and a wooden puppet-turned-boy through an unlikely medium ― oil paintings reminiscent of striking 15th-century Renaissance art.

There's a splash of magical realism within his classically styled oeuvre that indeed warrants a second look ― and a third.

The artist's ongoing solo exhibition, "X," mounted at Gallery Hyundai in central Seoul, offers a chance to bask in this uncanny mix of Renaissance aesthetics and surreal fantasy through some 40 oil paintings, drawings and sculptures.

Enamored with the art that became a foundational cultural influence across Europe from the 14th to 17th centuries, Park first launched his career by putting a distinctive spin on Renaissance and Baroque masterpieces. Notably, he gave the popular Greek mythological figures featured on canvas ― like Sirens and Icarus ― the physical features of East Asians.

Park Min-joon's "X ― Two Flags" (2022) / Courtesy of Gallery Hyundai

Artist Park Min-joon / Courtesy of Gallery Hyundai

However, a decade later, in the mid-2010s, the painter began to steer away from using the already established vocabulary of Western mythology as his central theme and instead turned to building his own immersive world.

The two fictional universes he has constructed and fleshed out since then are otherworldly spectacles, each led by an exotic circus troupe and a maestro who sacrificed himself to bring to life (or "actualize," in Park's words) the humans he had painted.

It's worth noting that these wonderfully bizarre worlds have materialized in Park's oeuvre through not only his oil paintings ― the latest of which are on view on the second floor of the gallery ― but also his novels, "Rappore Circus" (2018) and "Two Flags" (2020). The English translation of "Rappore Circus" was published at the end of last year in time for his Seoul show.

"I've been riveted by the idea of building my own universe and reproducing its characters and events via different means ― paintings, novels and sculptures," Park recently said at the gallery.

Installation view of Park Min-joon's latest "Commedia dell'Arte" series / Courtesy of Gallery Hyundai

But there's a lot more to the exhibition "X" than these two invented worlds.

In fact, his fascination with the theme of the circus ― more specifically, clowns ― carries on in another eye-catching series on display: "Commedia dell'Arte."

It's an obvious reference to the carnivalesque Italian comedy style that flourished throughout Europe between the 16th and 18th centuries for its ludicrously exaggerated characters and improvised plots. Its "Zanni" or buffoon characters eventually birthed the cultural tropes of clowns we all know today.

Sprawled across the gallery's basement is a dark stage-like setting, where one can almost hear the echoed words, "Let the show begin!"

But instead of masked live actors, viewers are faced with nine caricatured portraits of animal-headed performers ― all produced by Park as his way of reinterpreting the titular characters of Italian theater.

These include fox-headed Arlecchino, better known as witty and astute Harlequin, and Il Capitano, a deceitful braggart who tries to hide his cowardice by claiming to be a military captain and is therefore crowned with a rabbit head.

"All nine personalities that I decided to portray in the series represent a part of me," Park said. "While I incorporated the costumes and choreography traditionally associated with each character in my portraits, I wanted to add a touch of my own with overemphasized beast heads that I found to be matching with their dispositions."

Park Min-joon's "Strange Land" (2021) / Courtesy of Gallery Hyundai

The artist's search for new themes and creative vocabulary continues to this day. He hinted at the direction he will likely head in for the future through the "X" series, where he has injected the carnivalesque characters and icons featured in his previous works into real-life landscapes around the world.

"It seems like a typical landscape painting of an actual place like Central Park in New York and a palatial garden in Italy. But by inserting the (surreal) visual elements that I created into the vista, I imagined that place becomes a space of my own," he noted.

"X" runs through Feb. 5 at Gallery Hyundai.

Park Min-joon's "X-XX" (2022) / Courtesy of Gallery Hyundai