Onyou Park

Onyou Park (b.1992) is an artist currently living and working in Jeonju, South Korea.

After exploring various forms of media she eventually found her path in painting, moving to Antwerp in 2017 to delve deeper into the medium. It was her first time living abroad opening up a completely new world, saying that during those years she underwent a transformation.

Having gained valuable insights from her experience as a foreigner in an unfamiliar land for five years, she returned to her hometown “Jeonju”. However, the place she had always called home felt unfamiliar. Once you grow accustomed to life in a foreign place, even your hometown can feel alien. she found herself feeling like an outsider everywhere she went.

To rediscover herself, she chose to endure a period of deliberate isolation. It was in her words “a painful but necessary process” of facing herself head-on, rediscovering a desire to paint. Releasing the weight of her past, parts of herself she wishes to hide. Instead of painting what she has experienced, she focusses on the emotions those experiences have evoked. Having endured and armed herself with some form of protection, she feels she can hold on a little longer. It is a process of confronting the problems she once avoided and rediscovering herself.

Sint-Jorispoort 23

2000 Antwerpen

Open Thursday-Saturday

13:00-1800

or on appointment

+32 487 10 32 57

info@lifeisartgallery.be