Anna Park - Modern & Contemporary Art Day Sale Hong Kong Saturday, June 1, 2024 | Phillips

Modern & Contemporary Art Day Sale

Hong Kong Auction 1 June 2024

  • “My work early on was definitely more discernible. Now, I’m trying to operate from the memory of people or places and what that distortion feels like as opposed to a depiction of reality. I think our memories are intrinsically fragmented, discombobulated.”
    —Anna Park

     

    Working primarily in monochromatic tones, Anna Park's charcoal and graphite creations straddle the line between reverie and memory, combining figuration and abstraction. Her works feature angular faces and fragmented bodies set against swirling scenes of disorder, evoking shared memories of human connection—though they remain just that: elusive glimpses of reality just beyond reach. Despite her young age, Park's mature oeuvre has already garnered much recognition, with her pieces included in the collections of notable figures like Brian Donnelly (KAWS) and institutions such as the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the High Museum of Art, Atlanta; and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami. Park is currently subject to her first museum exhibition outside of the United States, namely Look, look. Anna Park, showing at the Art Gallery of Western Australia.  

     

     

    The artist pictured in front of the present work

     

    Park's artworks evoke mirages from nights of uninhibited revelry; dreamscapes that spin out of control; or even out-of-focus photographs, where all her characters and objects appear distorted and exaggerated. Drawing inspiration from online stock imagery and her own memory, the artist integrates her imagination with selected elements to create unexpected and at times unsettling compositions. As can be seen in Untitled, one detects a spectacled grinning face here; a coy side-eye there; a set of bared teeth over there: the over all result is one that is phantasmagoric, discombobulated, and filled with dizzying intrigue, offering a compelling snapshot, perhaps, of contemporary life.

     

    Born in South Korea and later moving to the United States, Park's lifelong passion for drawing led her to focus on charcoal as her preferred medium due to its fluidity and forgiving nature. Influenced by artists like Cecily Brown, she embraced the mark-making possibilities of charcoal, gradually transitioning from tightly rendered works to more abstract and distorted interpretations. The introduction of cartoonish and caricature-like elements, dotted in amongst her works as small tidbits or clues as a last tether to reality, adds a playful and emotive dimension to her figures, contrasting with the unrealistic backgrounds they inhabit. In works such as Untitled, hyper-realistic details coexist with smeared and elongated forms, emphasising the whimsical and dreamlike quality of Park's style, one which serves as a potent reimagining of the potential of charcoal as a medium for expressive art. 

    • Provenance

      Half Gallery, New York
      Private Collection, USA
      Private Collection, Europe
      Acquired from the above by the present owner

PROPERTY FROM A PRESTIGIOUS COLLECTION, ASIA

177

Anna Park

Untitled

signed 'Anna Park' on a label affixed to the reverse of each panel
charcoal on panel, in 2 parts
each 203.2 x 172.7 cm. (80 x 67 7/8 in.)
overall 203.2 x 345.4 cm. (80 x 136 in.)
Executed in 2021.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
HK$1,200,000 - 2,200,000 
€142,000-260,000
$154,000-282,000

Contact Specialist

Anastasia Salnikoff
Associate Specialist, Head of Day Sale
+852 2318 2014
anastasiasalnikoff@phillips.com
 

Modern & Contemporary Art Day Sale

Hong Kong Auction 1 June 2024