P21 presents Gonna Build a Mountain and Daydream, a solo exhibition by So Young Park, opening on October 10. Her second solo exhibition with the gallery features twelve new works, including a large-scale installation, alongside smaller canvases. Through a visual language rooted in impulse and sensation, the exhibition evokes a longing for worlds beyond immediate experience.

Rather than following narrative or figuration, Park reveals the emergence of images through aesthetic collisions and layered surfaces. Vivid colors, spontaneous gestures, and a distinctive formal vocabulary coalesce into compositions where organic curves and geometric shapes intertwine. These scenes do not represent a singular landscape, but stir feelings of the familiar and the strange, like echoes of memory. While mythical creatures or sublime terrains such as mermaids, dragons, or Machu Picchu are never directly depicted, their presence is suggested through chromatic and formal associations, inviting projections from the viewer’s imagination.

The images move fluidly between form and formlessness, becoming metaphors for intangible emotions—water, air, and clouds— that defy clear definition. Some areas suggest a yearning for an unreachable world or an irretrievable past, while scattered geometric and fragmented shapes allude to temporality, emotional detachment, and fatigue with the constructed order of civilization. These contrasting visual languages generate internal tension yet extend the pictorial space through juxtaposed color and texture.

Park merges traditional oil painting with contemporary materials, using metallic pigments and spray techniques to achieve tonal richness and compositional harmony. Her unique palette—at times reminiscent of traditional Korean hanbok—functions as a sensory device that facilitates emotional movement and diffusion. Her process balances control and spontaneity: deliberate structure is overlaid with physical interventions such as splattering and layering, capturing emotional shifts and the unpredictable flow of material.

Gonna Build a Mountain and Daydream proposes an imaginative act of surrender—a release from logic and unreachable expectations. Through layered brushstrokes and chromatic friction, Park scatters particles of emotion that resist verbal translation, encouraging viewers to playfully engage with them. Her work suggests a quiet but resilient mode of survival—one that preserves interior movement amid the constraints of modern life.

Venue
66 Hoenamu-ro, Yongsan-gu, Seoul

Artist
So Young Park

Exhibition Dates
October 10 – November 9, 2025

Gallery Hours
Tuesday – Friday | 11 AM – 6 PM
Saturday | 12 – 6 PM

Website
https://p21.kr/

Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/p21.kr/

Contact
info@p21.kr

About Artist

So Young Park (b. 1971) explores the process of image formation through bold color palettes, simplified forms, and spontaneous gestures. Her layered compositions—interweaving organic curves and geometric structures—move freely between figuration and abstraction, memory and imagination, evoking unconscious sensations in the viewer. By combining traditional oil painting techniques with contemporary materials, her work experiments with the materiality and visuality of painting, offering a sensory bridge between emotion and perception that resists linguistic translation.

She graduated from Universität der Künste Berlin led by Professor Daniel Richter. Recent solo exhibitions include P21, Seoul (2023); Frontviews, Berlin (2022); Project Space Sarubia, Seoul (2021); Hapjungjigu, Seoul (2018); Till Richter Museum, Germany (2017); and Gallery E105, Germany (2011). She has also participated in numerous group exhibitions, including at PODIUM, Hong Kong (2024); Kunstverein Göttingen, Germany (2024); Chapter NY, New York (2024); Simone Subal Gallery, New York (2023); Uferhallen, Berlin (2022); Art Space 3, Seoul (2019); Bethanien, Berlin (2019); El Segundo Museum of Art, USA (2016).

Her works are held in major public and private collections, including the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), Art Bank, El Segundo Museum of Art, the Robin and Alfredo Trento Collection, and the Segler-Uleer Collection in Germany.

About Gallery

Established in September 2017 in Itaewon, Seoul, P21 has been dedicated to showcasing 21st-century contemporary art by meticulously selecting both established and promising emerging artists. The gallery initially operated in two independent spaces, P1 and P2, each encouraging artworks that reflect the contrasting characteristics of these spaces and providing opportunities for artists to realize new ideas inspired by the gallery environment.

In February 2024, P21 moved to a new location just 100 meters from the original space. This new space marks not only a physical relocation but also the beginning of a new chapter, presenting a wider range of in-depth exhibitions and continuing to enhance its international presence through active collaboration with domestic and international institutions and participation in major international art fairs. Additionally, P21 seeks to introduce ambitious projects by renowned international artists to the domestic audience, aiming to build a balanced and dynamic program.

(Text and images courtesy of P21)