Park Wunggyu (b. 1987) has consistently presented works that explore the painterly possibilities of traditional Buddhist painting by creating a symbolic order of positive and negative through subjects that evoke ambivalent emotions.

Particularly, he refers to the 'Hwayukbeop' (畵六法, Six Principles of Painting) of Oriental painting, constituted by imitation, composition, form, texture, transformation, and application. Drawing on these principles, he incorporates into his artwork ambiguous emotions and sensations provoked by 'negativity', such as negative things, situations, and emotions.

Park Wunggyu employs the concept of “bu-jeong” in multiple ways as a central theme in his work. In his artist's note, he states, “I always react quickly things such as ‘something negative (bu-jeong), a misfortune situation (bu-jeong’s situation), dishonest feeling (bujeong’s feeling).” The three instances of "bu-jeong" in this statement each carry distinct meanings: bu-jeong (不正), referring to something unjust or improper; bu-jeong (不淨), meaning something impure or unclean; and bu-jeong (否定), indicating the denial or rejection of an entity.

His early series ‘Sputum Drawing’ (2012–) explores bu-jeong (不淨), focusing on impurity and filth. In this series, Park represents bodily secretions such as saliva, sputum, and tonsil stones—substances typically considered dirty—by likening them to sari, the relics found in the remains of Buddhist monks after cremation.

Reflecting on the Buddhist notion of sari emerging from the bodies of monks who have undergone rigorous ascetic practices, the artist drew a parallel to the waste materials expelled from his own body. While all of these substances originate from the human body, some are deemed impure (bu-jeong, 不淨), while others are revered as sacred. By juxtaposing sputum and other bodily secretions with the sacredness of sari, Park blurs the boundary between the profane and the holy.

Park Wunggyu’s signature series ‘Dummy’ (2015–), which brought him widespread recognition, prominently features another facet of "bu-jeong." The paintings in this series depict ambiguous forms that seem to hover between insect and plant, resembling grotesque organisms while also evoking religious icons such as the Virgin Mary or Christ. 

This series begins with a process of image collection. The artist gathers images encountered in everyday life, as well as those related to "bu-jeong" that he comes across on his smartphone, storing them in his photo archive. However, the collected images are not limited to repulsive or impure (bu-jeong, 不淨) subjects. They also include seemingly ordinary objects, photographs of beautiful plants, and even religious imagery from Christian or Buddhist traditions.

The artist defines his selection criteria for stored images as those in which he perceives a "code of bu-jeong". Reading this code of bu-jeong means engaging with an object without being swayed by its inherent atmosphere or supposed validity. 

Accordingly, Park Wunggyu does not simply replicate these images as they are. Instead, he merges and transforms them, sometimes reshaping them into entirely new forms in the process.

In his approach to image-making, the artist borrows the formal structures of religious iconography. He systematically adopts certain recurring religious schemas—such as the way figures are arranged within the composition, the decorative motifs that frame them, or the symbolic use of numbers and repetitive iconographic elements—turning these into patterned devices within his work. 

These religious schemata serve a dual function: they act as a method for capturing the subjects of “bu-jeong” that form the foundation of his work while also operating as a self-imposed discipline that regulates his engagement with “bu-jeong”.

Meanwhile, Nine Pieces of the Dummy (2019) extends the ‘Dummy’ series while engaging with the Buddhist teachings on the transience of life and desire. Through nine distinct "Dummies," the work illustrates the nine stages of human decomposition, from death to dust. 

In this process, the artist focuses primarily on the physical transformation of the corpse. He interprets the gradual drying, decay, cracking, and disintegration of the body as a pictorial system, expressing these changes through painterly techniques that emphasize the material’s alteration by moisture. Each stage’s form and texture are sourced from objects in the artist’s surroundings, which he then reimagines and elevates into icon-like representations.

Starting in 2019, the ‘Dummy’ figures, which once appeared as ambiguous hybrid forms, began to take on more specific and realistic representations of insects and strange creatures, such as moths and centipedes. Among these works, Eighteen Moths (2021) depicts a swarm of moths that appeared in the artist's studio, rendered in three different ways across six sets of triptychs.

The three approaches applied here are derived from the Buddhist concept of klesha (mental afflictions), which categorizes reactions to an object or phenomenon into three states: neutrality, affirmation, and negation. The artist channels his initial sense of disgust toward the moths' textures through these three states, translating his perception into visual form. The resulting eighteen paintings emerge as an exercise in observation (neutral), an attempt to understand their structure (affirmative), and an effort to physically engage with their texture (negative).

As the artist progressed with the series, what initially appeared distinct became increasingly ambiguous. True to his reflection, the work transitions from the recognizable form of moths to liberated patterns, freed from their fixed shapes and inherent sensibilities.

In his 2023 solo exhibition 《Intestine for Ritual》 at ARARIO GALLERY, Park Wunggyu presented a new iteration of his ‘Dummy’ series, focusing on the sculptural peculiarities of various bovine internal organs through enlarged, detailed depictions. 
This body of work originates from the artist’s longstanding aversion to intestinal foods and his personal experience of perceiving ‘intestinal food’ and the act of ‘eating’ as fundamentally opposing forces. In this series, Park traces the visual form of negativity evoked by “sundae” (Korean blood sausage) and reinterprets it through the formal language of religious iconography.

Just as intestinal foods, which evoke animal carcasses, become part of another being’s life through the act of eating, the artist connects negative emotions toward a subject with the sacred, expressing an apparent opposition that ultimately becomes one— a state where positive and negative are unified.

Alongside this, The Ten Oxherding Pictures (2023) is a reinterpretation of Sibu do (十牛圖, Ten Ox-Herding Pictures), originally painted by the 15th-century Japanese artist Tenshō Shūbun. In this work, Park Wunggyu explores the ambivalence of eating—the act of consumption as both survival and death. 

While his ‘Dummy’ series idolizes bovine intestines through its depictions, The Ten Oxherding Pictures shifts the focus from the organs themselves to the act of eating. Traditionally, the Ten Ox-Herding Pictures in Buddhist art illustrate a ten-stage journey in search of the ox, symbolizing the pursuit of one’s true nature. Park reinterprets this by depicting a process in which the ox is sought, consumed, excreted, and ultimately transformed into something else. Through this cyclical sequence, he ritualizes the conflicting realities embedded within the act of eating.

Park Wunggyu's recent work, The Eight Sorrow Events (2024), also draws from the narrative structure of traditional Buddhist painting. His interest in Buddhist art began in earnest in 2017 after he encountered the Buddhist painting Gilsangcheon (Śrīmahādevī, 吉祥天) at the Kyoto National Museum. Gilsangcheon depicts the goddess of fortune, a beloved figure in Buddhism who appears in the Nirvana Sutra. Alongside her is her sister, Heukamcheon (黑闇天), a character known for her ugly appearance and her ability to bring misfortune wherever she goes.

Having suffered from chronic skin conditions since childhood, Park began to feel a sense of empathy for Heukamcheon, leading him to give her a more justified narrative. To do this, he borrowed the narrative structure of the traditional Pal Sangdo (pictures of the eight main events of the Buddha's life, 八相圖), which portrays the life of the Buddha, to create a new version of Heukamcheon's tale.

In Park's rendition, the story unfolds as follows: A woman born from the anus of a young boy one day becomes covered in lesions, transforming into an ugly figure. She retreats to a mountain, hiding from people, but eventually, she finds peace within herself. She longs to share her newfound enlightenment with others, but wherever she goes, misfortune follows, and people begin to call her Heukamnyo (The Woman of Darkness), avoiding her. In the end, she dies in solitude, and after time passes, all that remains at the site of her death is a small yellowish bead.

In this way, Park Wunggyu adopts traditional Buddhist paintings and teachings as a methodological framework to explore the ambiguous emotions and sensations triggered by the "bu-jeong" surrounding himself and his subjects. His paintings emerge as spaces where opposing forces—rightness and unrightness (不正), affirmation and negation (否定), sacredness and impurity (不淨)—coexist in a state of flux, evoking new perceptions and sensations.

”I always react quickly things such as ‘something negative (bu-jeong), a misfortune situation (bu-jeong’s situation), dishonest feeling (bujeong’s feeling)’. And the process of solving it is taken as an amusement.” (Park Wunggyu, Artist’s Note) 

Park Wunggyu received his BFA in Korean painting at Chugye University for the Arts, and MFA in Korean painting at Chugye University for the Arts. Park began his active career as a resident artist at the Cheongju Art Studio from 2016. He has held solo exhibitions at various institutions such as ARARIO GALLERY SEOUL (Seoul, 2023), Art Space Boan1(Seoul, 2022), Onground2 (Seoul, 2018), and Space Kneet (Seoul, 2017), and Cheongju Art Studio (Cheongju, Korea, 2016).

He has also participated in various group exhibitions held at Chamber (Seoul, 2024), SONGEUN (Seoul, 2023), Museum of Contemporary Art Busan (Busan, Korea, 2023), Ilmin Museum of Art (Seoul, 2023), Seoul Museum of Art (Seoul, 2022), Danwon Art Museum (Ansan, Korea, 2021), Art Sonje Center (Seoul, 2021), Aram Art Museum (Goyang, Korea, 2019), and more.

In 2024, He was selected as one of ‘the 13th Chong Kun Dang Arts Awards Artists of the Year.’ His works are part of the collections at institutions including the Seoul Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Busan and ARARIO MUSEUM in Korea.

References

• 박웅규, Park Wunggyu (Artist Website)
• 아라리오갤러리, 박웅규 (ARARIO GALLERY, Park Wunggyu)
• 김남시, 부정을 통해 도달하는 평정. 박웅규의 〈십팔나방〉
• 아라리오갤러리, 의례를 위한 창자 (ARARIO GALLERY, Intestine for Ritual)