Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/96336
SeomiCulturedMiamiDec_Layout 1 11/20/12 3:55 PM Page 106 SeomiCu When PJ Park founded Seoul's Gallery Seomi in 2003 he wanted to increase awareness about contemporary art and design in the bustling Korean metropolis he calls home. Since then, his gallery has become an important presence at art and design fairs in international cities, including Hong Kong, Miami and Dubai. Always ahead of the curve, Park saw that Los Angeles' contemporary art scene was thriving, and this fall he opened PK Studio in no less a Los Angeles classic than Case Study House #21. The architect Pierre Koenig designed the sleek, 1958 glass-and-steel masterpiece for Walter and Mary Bailey as part of John Entenza's visionary Case Study Houses program for Arts & Architecture magazine. "Gloria Koenig, Pierre's widow, told us that Case Study House #21 was a personal favorite of Pierre's among all the houses he built in his long career," Park said. "It was always overshadowed by Koenig's more dramatic Case Study House #22, but recently people started paying attention to it again. In a way, this is like the situation of Korean furniture design, which until recently hadn't been appreciated as much as it should have been. I think contemporary Korean design and the Case Study House are very similar in the sense that the historical aspects of both are being emphasized and reanalyzed again, and it just felt right to put the two together." When the Hollywood Hills house came on the market in 2008, Park seized the moment and has been planning the launch of PK Studio ever since. The showroom will concentrate primarily on contemporary Korean art and design—although, he says, "We would like to keep our doors flexible." It also strengthens the mission established by the innovative Park in his Gallery Seomi in Seoul. The clean lines and open, airy spaces of the Case Study House provide the perfect setting for the display of contemporary Korean furniture design that he curated for the opening. Bae Se-hwa's curvaceous walnut wood pieces and Hun-Chung Lee's striking concrete and glazed ceramic furniture sit like sculptures in the house's simple, spare rooms, while Kang Myung Sun's table and chairs of shimmery mother-of-pearl with traditional Korean red-lacquer bases inject a pop of color, and luxury, to the kitchen. With events and programs planned and new displays every eight weeks or so, we predict that PK Studio, which is open by appointment, will soon be on the agenda of every design aficionado. 106 CULTURED PHOTO BY PARK MYUNGRAE "I THINK CONTEMPORARY KOREAN DESIGN AND THE CASE STUDY HOUSE ARE VERY SIMILAR IN THE SENSE THAT THE HISTORICAL ASPECTS OF BOTH ARE BEING EMPHASIZED." —PJ PARK