Gangster Fond of Playing with Fire, 2024, oil on canvas, 121.92 x 121.92 cm

The artist known as Green, AKA Yong Woon Park is having a moment. Green gathered the courage to break out of a traditional world and walk the creative path. The results are pushing paint across the canvas in bursts of seemingly playful energy. Behind the freedom is some very conscious mark-making. It’s a high wire act that Green is enjoying exploring. We asked him some questions about his practice. Here’s what he had to say.

LAB Tell us about your process?

GREEN When embarking on a new artwork, I focus intently on the subject I wish to portray, using it as a metaphor or an ambiguous poem to convey my inner emotions; guilt, anxiety, anger, and distrust towards moral failings of contemporary life, but also humour satire and hope towards a better future. I delve into the suppressed feelings of my subconscious, employing vivid, bright colours to paint intuitively.

This instinctive handling of paint serves as a cathartic release for my sometimes overwhelming emotions. At times, my creations reflect my exasperation with the perceived meaninglessness of existence, expressing a yearning for change that seems perpetually elusive.

Other moments I find myself captivated by the rawness and mesmerizing complexity of feeling that I cannot control, I cannot predict, but they just guide my hand to produce spontaneous artworks. Some may describe my paintings as childish scribbles - I intend them in this way, as they best represent the innocence and futility of the human’s condition.

LAB What part does mythology play in your work?

GREEN As a South Korean artist, I am drawn to the nuances of cultural identity and its intersections with modern society, embedding elements of my heritage into some of my pieces to provoke reflection and dialogue.

My works frequently feature figures adorned with traditional Korean gamyeon masks, a symbol steeped in both history and satire. These masks serve as a lens through which I critique the pressures of contemporary life; particularly the relentless pursuit of beauty and success that society so often demands. When donned by figures of authority, the gamyeon become ironic emblems of power’s propensity to mock and manipulate, exposing a societal obsession with conformity and superficial ideals.

The presence of Dokkaebi, traditional Korean goblins, further enriches this narrative with a layered duality. In one sense, these figures embody auspiciousness, inviting viewers to find contentment and value within their own lives, transcending the exhausting chase for society’s prescribed rewards. Yet, the Dokkaebi are equally employed to reveal a darker, more insidious commentary - transforming into harbingers of misfortune when depicted as members of the elite, who amass resources for themselves to the detriment of others.

Through these complex juxtapositions, I seek to confront viewers with questions about the true essence of prosperity and the structures that govern our perceptions of worth and success.

However, my inspirations extend beyond mythology alone. Mythological figures in my work often intertwine with elements of the natural world. Through this fusion, I seek to evoke a world where folklore and the organic are inseparably bound, capturing a holistic vision of beauty that honours both tradition and the environment’s timeless presence.

LAB What is the journey between paint and psychology in your work?

GREEN The paintings I present to the world are expressions of an uncontrollable visceral need to voice my own intense criticism of societal issues such as competitiveness, inequality, and peer pressure. I bring a bold, unrestrained intensity to my work, a passion that reveals itself through the tactile textures on my canvas.

Each layer, each ridge of paint, is an echo of my restlessness, a raw expression of the agitation and urgency that drive my hand. To temper this energy, I juxtapose these textures with vibrant colours applied in finer lines with oil sticks, allowing a softer, more tender aspect of myself to emerge. Colours applied in this way become my counterbalance: it embodies innocence, a deep-seated love for beauty, and a reverence for harmony.

There’s a relentless pace to my process, an instinctive need to complete a piece in a single night, often resulting in unfiltered applications of colour, sometimes straight from the tube, bold and unblended. This interplay between “thickness” and “luminosity,” between “harshness” and “gentleness,” captures the complexity of my character. I am a fusion of curiosity, creativity, and openness to the unknown, yet deeply emotional and impassioned, responding viscerally to the weight of the world pressing around me.

Once I start painting, I work swiftly, allowing my emotions to dictate each brushstroke, embracing improvisation over meticulous planning or preconceived notions (the latter is something I consider more before approaching the process of making a new artwork). This spontaneity fuels my creative process, resulting in artworks that resonate with genuine emotional depth and capture the essence of my experiences in real time.

LAB If you could imagine a better future, what would it look like?

GREEN I envision a world where peace, freedom, equality, and equity are universal truths, woven into the fabric of everyday life. In this world, no one feels the relentless pressure to succeed at any cost or to strive endlessly to be the best. Here, poverty no longer breeds hunger, oppression has vanished, and the shadows of war are memories of the past. It is a world grounded in dignity and compassion, where every individual lives free from fear and deprivation, able to simply be connected, uplifted, happy and whole.

LAB Best advice you've ever been given? And worst?

GREEN The most invaluable advice I’ve been given is to express my emotions freely through painting, to release myself from constraints or overthinking, much like the synesthetic process where sensory experiences transform into visceral, emotional responses. I continue, even through moments of profound discontent and self-doubt, pushing forward when it feels as though parts of myself are dissolving.

The worst advice I have been given was to keep going, to keep living a life others thought was the best life for me. My choice to leave a successful corporate path, where I served as director of my own company, defied the counsel of close family and friends who urged caution. Yet, despite the inherent challenges of the contemporary art world, I now find a sense of fulfilment that transcends professional success. Painting unveils my most authentic self to the world, expressed purely and instinctively, like the unmeasured intake of breath, bringing me a profound sense of wholeness as both an artist and human being.

LAB What motto you live by?

GREEN The guiding principle that shapes my life is simple yet profound: Follow your Dreams. After years immersed in the corporate landscape of South Korea-a world defined by rapid pace, cutting-edge technology, and the allure of material success-I felt an undeniable pull to pursue my true essence, my authentic form as an artist. My life, to me, is a canvas awaiting my own hand, a space I am determined to shape freely and deliberately. I strive to live unbound by the confines of societal expectations, embracing a path not predefined by convention but inspired by a relentless pursuit of self-expression and creative autonomy.

GREEN

THE ARTIST simply KNOWN AS GREEN

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