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Actor Park Shin-yang explores inner world in new art exhibition
Actor Park Shin-yang speaks during a press conference on his exhibition at Sejong Museum of Art in Seoul, Friday. Courtesy of Minumsa
By Kim Se-jeong
Since his debut in 1992, actor Park Shin-yang has spent decades inhabiting the lives of others on screen. Early in his career, he played a Buddhist monk in “Yuri” (1996), a mafia leader in “A Promise” (1998) and a divorced businessman in "Lovers in Paris" (2004). More recently, he appeared as a lawyer in the KBS drama series “My Lawyer, Mr. Jo” (2016).
Offscreen, however, Park has long focused on understanding himself. Over the years, he read widely in psychology and philosophy, took courses and turned to painting as a way to explore his thoughts and emotions.
Nearly four decades of introspection have culminated in an exhibition that opened at Sejong Museum of Art on Friday.
Titled “The 4th Wall," the exhibition reflects Park’s attempt to bridge the distance between artist and viewers. In theater, the fourth wall refers to the invisible barrier separating actors from the audience.
Actor Park Shin-yang talks about his paintings at Sejong Museum of Art in Seoul, Friday. Courtesy of Minumsa
The exhibition features nearly 150 works with several recurring motifs.
One of them is the apple. Park began painting apples after receiving one from a philosopher he deeply respected. “As time passed, the apple that I knew disappeared, and I began to see it differently,” he said.
In another series, titled “Bullfighter,” Park likens himself to the figure in the arena. “I am under constant pressure to express. The pressure is so great that I feel like a bullfighter facing a bull. Here, I either win or I lose.”
In the “Kirill” series, Park paints the face of his Russian friend, whom he met while studying drama in Moscow in his younger years. The friend becomes a symbol of something the artist misses — and of the emotion he calls “yearning.”
“My quest to find myself led me to discover the feeling of yearning,” he said. “These days, people rarely talk about it. But I kept dwelling on that feeling, asking myself what I miss, why I miss him and what I am like when I yearn for someone.”
Actor Park Shin-yang talks about his painting, "Bullfighter," at Sejong Museum of Art in Seoul, Friday. Courtesy of Minumsa
Donkeys also appear repeatedly throughout the exhibition. Park says he identifies with the animal’s quiet endurance.
“While many people try to get rid of things that bother them or feel like burdens, I am the kind of person who takes them,” he said. “I see the same character in donkeys, which is why I painted many of them.”
His background as an actor also shapes how he approaches exhibitions. In 2023, he recreated his studio inside a gallery space and demonstrated his painting process for visitors.
For the current exhibition, Park has invited 13 performers dressed as clowns to wander through the gallery, interacting freely with the space.
“They’ll be my spirits when I am not here,” he said, adding that the ballet “The Nutcracker,” in which objects come to life when humans are absent, served as inspiration for the idea.
Park made his artistic debut in 2023 with a show in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province. While the exhibition was well received, Park said he feels particularly grateful to present his work in Seoul, where more people can see it.
The exhibition also coincides with the release of Park’s latest book, “Discovery of Feeling.” The book is his fifth and explores his ongoing search for self-understanding, combining essays about artistic inspiration with reflections on emotion.
“The 4th Wall” runs through May 10 and “Discovery of Feeling” is available at bookstores.