from a to zi: 20x200//younga park

Younga Park, Winter Flags (East Village, New York)

(image from 20x200)

20x200 is an initiative started by New York gallerist Jen Beckman. Basically, it aims to make art more accessible to more people. It does this by offering, on a twice a week basis, limited edition prints from a selection of artists. The price of the print depends on its size and edition number, with the $20 pricepoint of works printed in editions of 200 giving the venture its name. Personally, I am all for businesses which are trying to make art something that everyone can own. If art makes you hapy, why can't it be a part of your everyday life? Needless to say, I think 20x200 is a great initiative. But that's only one side of it. The other great thing is the artists I am learning about as the releases of the weekly editions arrive in my inbox. One of my favourites is New York photographer Younga Park.

Younga's photographs are, for the most part, simple subjects, but they highlight that there is whimsy and inspiration to be found in unexpected places. She is also represented at Jen Beckman's main gallery, and whilst her artist's statement sounds awfully intellectual - "My work is an attempt to find idiosyncratic moments in daily interactions with the living, built, and natural environments" - I would probably state it moer simply: there is joy and fascination to be found if you look up, down and around instead of just focusing on what's ahead. This is most notable in the first and last photographs. It's something that I've become increasingly aware of over the past few years as I take more and more photos: leaving the house with a camera in your hand, you are infinitely more observant than heading out empty handed. Colours, shapes, framings, ideosyncracies all become apparent to the eager eye, and I think it is this celebration of fine details that I enjoy in Younga Park's work.