WHAT: Art exhibition and recorded artist talk

WHO: Korean artist Nara Park

WHEN: On View: March 17 - May 13| Artist talk video release: April 28 at 12:30 p.m.

WHERE: Plain Sight: 3218 Georgia Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20010   More information at www.plainsightdc.com

The Korean Cultural Center Washington, D.C. (KCCDC) is proud to help present Korean artist Nara Park’s solo exhibition I Live at Plain Sight, a unique street-view gallery in Washington, D.C.’s historic Park View neighborhood, on view March 17 - May 13 with a recorded artist talk releasing on April 28 at 12:30 p.m.

I Live incorporates elements of sculpture and poetry to investigate our relationship with the landscape and the imprints we leave behind. Park often uses synthetic materials such as Styrofoam and plastic to create three-dimensional works inspired by sacred places, ranging from memorial sites to natural rock formations. Just as stone is used in many world cultures to commemorate the dead as a symbol of strength, stability, and permanence, Park’s uses stone as a motif to imply memorialization and the natural desire for immortality. 

Featured within the I Live exhibition is Presence V, a large floor sculpture created by Park using Styrofoam beads, polystyrene panels, and acrylic paint. The sculpture will be paired with three new wall pieces from her  Promises series crafted of Polystyrene foam, plaster, and stone-textured paint. The exhibition will be accompanied by an audio recording of Park reading her 2017 poem Promises.

Plain Sight’s exhibitions can be seen at 3218 Georgia Avenue NW Washington, D.C. 20010 and are viewable 24 hours a day, seven days a week. 

Park’s separate recorded talk, offering an inside look at her creative themes, processes, and inspirations, will release on April 28 at 12:30 p.m. on Plain Sight’s IGTV (@plainsightdc) and the KCCDC’s IGTV (@Koreaculturedc). 

Presence VIII, 2019

Promises, 2017

About the Artist 

Nara Park, born in 1985 in Seoul, Korea, is a sculptor and installation artist based in Washington, D.C. She is a recipient of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Fellowship and the Hamiltonian Artists Fellowship. Her work has been exhibited at numerous venues, including the Contemporary Arts Center (New Orleans, La.), The Phillips Collection (Washington, D.C.), Grounds for Sculpture (Hamilton, N.J.), the Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (Md.), and American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center (Washington, D.C.). Her works are included in the collections of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, as well as The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. Park holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture from the Maryland Institute College of Art, where she received the Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award by the International Sculpture Center and Henry Walters Traveling Fellowship. Park has been a guest speaker at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. For more information, visit the artist’s website at https://naraparkstudio.com. 

About Plain Sight 

Located at 3218 Georgia Avenue NW in DC’s historic Park View neighborhood, Plain Sight is an independent project created by Teddy Rodger and Allison Nance and born out of the many art space closures during the Covid-19 pandemic. By transforming an under-utilized storefront into an active street-view gallery, Plain Sight will present a series of exhibitions created by local artists that can be experienced in a completely contact-free way. Learn more at www.plainsightdc.com

This project is generously supported with a Public Art Building Communities grant from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, an agency supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.