Anna Park’s Works on Paper Channel Her Alter Ego at Blum & Poe

Anna Park‘s large-scale works on paper unpack the notion of voyeurism in the contemporary.

The Brooklyn-based artist’s latest exhibition Mirror Shy (5 November–17 December 2022) presents new black-and-white drawings for her Los Angeles debut at Blum & Poe.

Illustrating her alter ego with sharp outlines and meticulous shading, Park’s work examines the different ways the body is perceived through a voyeuristic lens in contemporary culture. Her compositions reveal snippets from moments of scrutiny: a female figure—Park’s alter ego—is seen through the telescope of standardised body culture constructs.

In Smells Like Roses (2022), Park explores bodily anxieties by depicting a woman with her hips raised in the air for an oversized, shadowy figure to inspect. Representative of the unavoidable pressure of beauty standards in contemporary culture, Park’s sinister figure is an invasive voyeur of her alter ego.⁠

After her last New York show, Pluck Me Tender (8 April–8 May 2021) at Half Gallery, it was reported that four of Park’s works had gone to major U.S. collections including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami. She also has her first solo museum exhibition currently on view at the SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah.

Mirror Shy is on view at Blum & Poe Los Angeles until 17 December.

Main image: Anna Park, Smells Like Roses (2022). Ink, acrylic, charcoal, and paper on panel. 218.4 x 218.4 x 4.4 cm. Courtesy the artist and Blum & Poe, Los Angeles/New York/Tokyo. Photo: Genevieve Hanson.