Artist Park Jong-seok Captures 10,000 Faces, Championing the Ordinary as Protagonist

At the Eunam Museum of Art in Gwangju, thousands of portraits cover the floors and walls, creating a powerful visual testament to artist Park Jong-seok's dedication. His exhibition, "Man-in-Hwa-Jeon," features 5,000 sketches of faces drawn over the past 24 years, a collection that transcends time, nationality, and religion, including figures like the spokesperson for the 5.18 Democratization Movement, a master of the Dongnae Hakchum dance, a former South Korean president, a Catholic priest, and even the former Prime Minister of Vietnam.

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Everyone is the protagonist of their own life. I've tried to draw everyone I've met.

Park, 70, a Korean ink painting artist, is driven by a profound belief that "everyone is the protagonist of their own life." He aims to capture the essence of every person he meets, even sketching them from photographs if time is short. This exhibition, running until July 2nd, is his first dedicated solely to portraiture. While he has previously depicted landscapes and historical figures from around the world, "Man-in-Hwa-Jeon" focuses on the faces of individuals, many of whom are ordinary citizens often lost to history.

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History is the record of the victors. For example, we know a lot about Admiral Yi Sun-sin, but we don't remember the nameless commoners who died fighting under him.

The exhibition is thoughtfully divided into three sections: 'Tak-se' (turbulent world), 'Su-ryu' (flowing water), and 'Hwa-gae' (blooming flower). These themes explore figures from various eras, including those who opposed anti-democratic forces like Chun Doo-hwan and the current presidential couple, Yoon Suk-yeol and Kim Keon-hee. Park's personal history deeply informs this work. His maternal grandfather, who studied in Japan and was involved in the independence movement, faced political persecution, leading to a lifetime of hardship for Park's family due to guilt by association. Later, as a conscript during the Bu-ma Protests in 1979, Park witnessed the military's role in suppressing civilian unrest. His subsequent avoidance of the 1980 Gwangju Uprising, where he took refuge with his aunt, left him with a lasting sense of debt.

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Because I couldn't participate in the Gwangju Uprising, I wanted to record the faces of the May 18th martyrs and the citizens of Gwangju.

"I often worked through the emotional burdens stemming from my family's suffering," Park explained. "Because I couldn't participate in the Gwangju Uprising, I wanted to record the faces of the May 18th martyrs and the citizens of Gwangju." Now, Park aspires to expand his project to "100,000 portraits" and aims to sketch his maternal grandfather this year, using his mother's and aunt's faces as references. He also plans to publish a book about his grandfather's life, seeking to shed light on the often-overlooked aspects of modern Korean history through his family's tragic narrative.

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My maternal grandfather's suffering and the pain my family endured because of him created a knot in my heart that I've often worked through with my art.