2GIL29 GALLERY will be going to exhibit art critic Youngtaek Park’s <취향심향 |||> that will run from Aug. 8th to 22nd,, 2020, which is the third exhibition followed by the second one in 2018. As he once mentioned that “ An old object, objet comes as an existence filled with full of suggestion of vitality without clear appearance.”, an old object is “not a closed and dark being sealing the days and memories we passed but the one that reflects those days on today and is incessantly brought to life shedding a bright light on. Where traces of time, touch of human being, and lost traces used to stay become a field that greatly inspire posterity’s and his imagination. In this exhibition, his favored collections of 150 pieces that have become a part of his life and history along with him for long time. They include number of earthen wares from the Gaya era, a Chusa Gim Jeong-hui’s calligraphy, a landscape, a folk painting, a white porcelain, an earthen pot, a folk goods, and contemporary art works that he has been collecting with all his might, and all of them came to him with all different stories in them. 

He got down to collecting about 10 years ago when he happened to encounter an earthenware of Gaya era. There contained its unique and simple sense of beauty in the earthen cup. He once made remark on the earthenware’s sense of beauty saying that “The reason that a plain and simple work of art impress us greatly is because an artwork is not about a matter of artistry but about the one of mind.” And he also added “ There is pure and frank heart that pedantic contemporary art lost long ago.” confessing that he is captivated by simple, natural, casual, and practical sense of antiques that have long history and vast amount of accumulation of time. As a collector who has been engaging in enormous number of collections that are put together over period and genre, he remarks on his own philosophy about aesthetics of collecting that finding a sign of life among semiotic fragments gathered from daily lives is a beginning of collecting. His affectionate act of collecting antiques allowed him to develop an eye for art and learn our ancestor’s life and culture, and open his eye for a beauty of Korea. 

Antiques that yet remained as an object of everyday life without drawing particular attention started to be collected one by one by his discerning taste of art, and are brought to life as formative objects that are evocative mechanism having spirit and ambiance of the time. As he once said “I carefully pay attention to voice heard from the deepest side of things that have survived for everlasting span of time.”, we hope that we can give viewers an opportunity that not only meet a record of personal affection but also look history of our antiques with fresh eyes through the view of critic with profound discernment who has been appreciating aesthetic things for entire his life.

Art critic, Youngtaek Park
Born in Seoul, 1963. He earned Bachelor of Arts in art education at Sungkyunkwan University and did his graduate studies in art history at the same university. He worked as a curator at the Kumho Museum of Art for ten years and had a curator fellowship at the Queens Museum. He has served positions such as a curator of The 2nd Gwangju Biennial Special Exhibition, a commissioner of International Biennale of Young Artists in 2002, a director of the second ASIAF Exhibition, a director of culture and arts events at the Daegu Art Factory, an art review committee of the Chosun Ilbo New Spring Literature Contest etc. He has been engaging in writings including thesis and books are total 20 books as an author and 5 books as a co-author and dozens of thesis. Currently, he is an art critic who talks about life through art and a professor at the Department of Science of Arts.