Artwork copyright Seho Park. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission.

Artwork copyright Seho Park. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission.

Celestial Black #51, 1981

Seho Park
Korean

Location: Clark College, Vancouver

About the Artwork

Celestial Black #51 is part of series of abstract paintings by artist Seho Park. He created this series by first painting a vast space in a single color and then adding floating forms into the composition. He notes that the series explores ideas about life and spirituality. He states, "To me, the word and image 'space' has much more than physical connotation to it. It has- spiritual dimension to it. My job was to search for the visual traces of this spiritual dimension in a dark, black and void space. When one sees continuity of life in this space, the space stops being a void space: it becomes a self-fulfilled space, a warm room for every life form to live in."

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Clark College.

About the Artist

Minnesota-based artist and professor Seho Park creates paintings and works on paper. In his own words, "I make art in order to see. Art-making is about seeing and knowing. It is about making a specific life experience of encountering and knowing."

Park received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Keimyung University in South Korea. He earned a Master of Arts in Teaching degree from Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington. He earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in painting and a PhD in art education from the University of Minnesota. He is a professor at Winona University in Minnesota.