Sculptor Park Suk-won's meditative forest of stone towers

Installation view of sculptor Park Suk-won's solo exhibition, "re- and de-," at The Page Gallery in Seongdong District, eastern Seoul / Courtesy of The Page Gallery

Stacks of geometrically-cut stone slabs, stainless steel and wood morph into a meditative forest of towers under the skilled hands of Park Suk-won.

Over the last 60 years, Park has solidified his position as a pioneering force in Korean abstract sculpture by bringing to the fore the intrinsic physical properties of the materials. In essence, for him, these materials were not merely a means used to conjure any representational image; they were art in themselves.

The octogenarian sculptor, alongside radical creatives like Kim Ku-lim, Lee Seung-taek and Ha Chong-hyun, was one of the founding members of the Korean Avant-Garde Association (AG), which ushered in the country’s 1970s experimental art scene. (Some of the group’s members are featured in the touring exhibition, “Only the Young: Experimental Art in Korea, 1960s-1970s,” recently staged at the Guggenheim in New York.)

His latest solo exhibition, “re- and de-,” at The Page Gallery in eastern Seoul illuminates his four-decade journey through 16 sculptures and 14 paintings on display.

At the core of the show is Park’s minimalist “Accumulation” series, produced by cutting the natural materials into geometric segments and then restacking them into imposing columns. Their shapes appear rooted in the sculptural characteristics of Korea’s totemic stone towers that once guarded the entrance of villages in mountainous areas.

Such an emphasis on materiality later extended to his two-dimensional canvas works, where he embraced the physical quality of “hanji” (traditional Korean paper made from the bark of native mulberry trees) through the practice of cutting, re-assembly and layering.

Though his repetition of simplistic forms resonates with Western minimalism, Park, with his philosophical usage of spiritually layered, natural materials in lieu of industrial counterparts, has constructed a Korean version of the genre, according to the gallery.

“re- and de-” runs until Feb. 24 at The Page Gallery.

Installation view of sculptor Park Suk-won's "re- and de-" at The Page Gallery / Courtesy of The Page Gallery