Fermilab Today Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2011
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Resonance: Rythym and flow

This is one woodcut and drawn image created by artist Kwang Jean Park. Image courtesy of Kwang Jean Park

Contemporary artist Kwang Jean Park's work is currently on display in the Fermilab Art Gallery on the second floor of Wilson Hall. An artist reception will take place today, from 5 to 7 p.m.

A unique harmony of science and art resonates through the abstract work of contemporary artist Kwang Jean Park. Using woodcut and hand drawings on paper or mixed media on canvas, Park conveys the beauty and the unknown in what she calls the "true substance of nature." Park's exhibit will be on display in the Fermilab Art Gallery through Oct. 29.

"Scientists want to explore where we came from, where the universe came from," Andrew Bae, a Chicago gallery owner and Park's representative of 20 years, said. "Park is pursuing the same goal, but in a metaphysical and spiritual sense."

Fermilab's art gallery curator Georgia Schwender stumbled upon Park's work in Bae's gallery.

"Park's work is wonderful," Schwender said. "Bae explained what the pieces represent, and it was clear that Park's art would fit into our gallery well."

In learning about Fermilab and Robert Wilson's goals, Bae noticed striking similarities between the laboratory's founder and his artist.

"Wilson's mission statement for Fermilab could be Park's mission statement as an artist," Bae said. "She also wants to understand the fundamental nature of matter."

In Park's artist's statement, she describes her attempt to express the concept of yin and yang.

"Yin and yang, the root of East Asia worldview, posits that everything in the universe can be understood in terms of coupled energies," Park's statement, on display in the Fermilab Art Gallery, reads.

Bae explained that Park has had the same flow in her work over the years and her pieces symbolize the rhythm of life. He also said that there is a certain life to everything, from a grain of sand to the universe itself.

"We don't understand most of life." Bae said. "Park is trying to bring the idea of life, whether it's the life of a tiny particle or the Big Bang, into a different perspective."

Ashley WennersHerron

Fermi National Accelerator - Office of Science / U.S. Department of Energy | Managed by Fermi Research Alliance, LLC.
 
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