There was one thing telling that Anna Park disclosed this week as she opened her solo show, Mirror Shy, at Blum and Poe. “When I moved to NYC, there was just so significantly heading on, and I was using it all in and portray that experience. I think my new perform is absorbing anything diverse now.” And, in an fast, you can see the alter. Absent is the twister of imagery, a fantastic and dizzying array of pop-culture and dionysian satisfaction of her past get the job done, and in this article we see a cinematic and darkly humorous physique of perform of currently being a female in the art earth and the planet at significant. The will work are leaner, a lot more direct, far more cheeky, more in the custom of American cinema and ad of the mid-20th century.
As the gallery notes, “Bringing the language of promotion into the fold of her practice, Park furthers her self-mindful investigations into a society of commodity and surveillance. In times of stillness that originate from a point of view rooted in empathy for her subjects, Mirror Shy signals to the viewer a newfound feeling of handle even though continuing to tackle overarching themes in the artist’s oeuvre these types of as interior conflict, longing, and the one particular among the several. This exhibition marks a change in Park’s narrative voice—arriving at the heart of a earth that she had formerly appeared in on from afar, she is now a participant in that which she actively critiques. “
It feels approximately ideal that at the similar time Park is opening her new solo present with a fully refreshing entire body of perform, her very first museum exhibition is on show at SCAD MOA featuring some of her strongest operate to date in her preceding performs. The charcoal performs she experienced been showing have been masterful as they were being a testament to the toughness of the paper she was applying. Her in Mirror Shy, Park appears to commit even much more adore for paper, as she manipulates each and every surface of her new function with levels of ink, acrylic, charcoal, and paper. The results might seem like a stipped-back again system of operate, but they are akin to how effectively the artist employs supplies to tell a tale. If this is her new voice, she built absolutely sure to carry more mature discussions to the fold. A amazing show, indeed. —Evan Pricco