PRESS RELEASE

Joseph Park's oil on linen paintings depict narrative situations that are tangentially autobiographical and eerie. His interest in animation and noir-ish Hollywood film stills coalesce in both charming and disturbing tableaux where bears, bunnies, elephants, cartoon kids, Madonna, and other kitschy subjects await events that could jeopardize their innocence. The child pedaling along a forest path in "Cycle" has no clue what awaits him in the next ten yards or twenty years - and he has no face to register either knowledge or fear. Similarly, the tiny illuminated hide-away in an impressionistic landscape, presented like a Japanese scroll painting, appears under surveillance by a spy plane or other malevolent viewer - the safety of physical isolation has failed. All the paintings share a sense of foreboding - their subjects "prey" to unseen forces.

Mr. Park was born in Ottawa, Canada; graduated with a BA from Cornish College of the Arts and with an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts. He currently lives and works in Seattle.