EunYoung Park: Sumuk: The Infinite Depths
April 13 – April 26, 2026
Opening Reception: Thursday, April 16, 6–8 PM
Argentine Tango Night:
Friday, April 24, from 5 PM
Live Tango Music Starts from 6 PM
*** $20 Donation Suggested
Asian & American Art Foundation is pleased to present Sumuk: The Infinite Depths, a solo exhibition by EunYoung Park, on view from April 13 through 26, 2026. This exhibition offers a refined continuation of Park’s exploration of materiality, gesture, and metaphysical inquiry through the traditional medium of ink.
“Sumuk” originates from soot produced through the combustion of wood and oil—a material in which opposing qualities coexist: toxic and neutral, destructive and generative. For Park, black is not merely a color, but a record of time, gesture, and accumulation. Through the layered application of ink, she reveals a profound range of depth and variation embedded within monochrome.
Park’s practice engages with the concept of the abyss—an infinite, unfolding space shaped by memory, endurance, and the passage of time. Her works visualize inner landscapes in which past choices and fleeting moments settle into dense, stratified layers of darkness. These accumulations form meditative fields where repetition and persistence operate as both method and meaning.
A central motif in Park’s visual language is the wave. Her intricate, repetitive lines evoke electrical currents or neural networks, transmitting energy across space and time. This energy resonates with the concept of Qi, the vital force that connects all living things. Through acts such as folding paper, layering ink, and inscribing gestural marks, Park transforms material processes into metaphors for personal and spiritual transformation.
The artist’s journey—from South Korea to Seattle, and now New York—is embedded within these layered surfaces. Her works reflect both the transience and continuity of life, inviting viewers to contemplate the tension between impermanence and depth. Through an engagement with emptiness, vibration, and unseen forces, Park constructs a distinct visual language that bridges the material and immaterial.
Working primarily with natural ink on mulberry paper, Park merges traditional Korean techniques with contemporary approaches to abstraction. Her compositions, ranging from intimate to monumental in scale, create immersive environments that encourage introspection. Each work becomes a site of quiet intensity, where repetition, restraint, and accumulation converge into a contemplative meditation on life, nature, and interconnectedness.
Sumuk; The Infinite Depths presents a space of resonance and trace. Viewers are invited to experience both material presence and emptiness, to move through the depths alongside the artist, and to reflect on their own inner landscapes.
EunYoung Park received her B.A. in Oriental Painting from Hong-Ik University and later studied Animation Directing at the Korean Academy of Film Arts. She has participated in numerous artist residencies, including Art Farm (USA) and Centrum (USA), and has held solo exhibitions in both Korea and the United States. She currently lives and works in New York.