Monochromatic photograph of a rural landscape with a wire fence in the foreground, bare and leafy branches, and distant rolling hills obscured by haze. The muted, overexposed tones and soft focus create an atmospheric, contemplative quality of the Kansas countryside.

Friendly Stranger

Ahram Park

2/28/2014 – 4/5/2014

Press Release (PDF)

"I spent this past summer making trips into the Kansas countryside, approaching the land as a newcomer, as I did 18 years ago. But how could I possibly look at this land with the same eyes? By accepting the inevitable shift, the landscape became my starting point. I gave recognition to the scarce shade offered on hot summer days, while stirring the motionless ones with a leaf blower on gravel roads. My interventions were driven from a curiosity that was left unfulfilled - one that was required on those motionless days."

Ahram Park is a photographer born in Pusan, Republic of Korea. He graduated in 2010 from Kansas State University with a B.S. degree in economics. He currently lives and works in Kansas City, Mo., where he has exhibited at several distinguished local and national institutions including the Bemis Center in Omaha, Dolphin gallery, Los Caminos, Spraybooth gallery and most recently at 1522 Saint Louis. Additionally, Park has been invited to lecture as a visiting artist at the University of Missouri Kansas City and the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art. Recently, Park's photograph was selected by a panel of local curators and artists for the Project Wall at the H&R Block Artspace. He is currently the gallery manager at Bill Brady KC.

Exhibition Images ()

  • A minimalist gallery interior with white walls and polished concrete floor displays two black-and-white framed photographs: one depicting a misty wooded landscape on the left wall, and another showing a vast, flat field on the right. A large black doorway opens in the center wall, and industrial ceiling fixtures with exposed beams illuminate the sparse exhibition space.
  • Black and white photograph in a white frame depicting a misty rural landscape with dense trees framing the edges and fog obscuring a gravel road or clearing in the center. The image has a soft, atmospheric quality with minimal contrast between sky and land.
  • A framed black and white photograph hung on a white gallery wall depicting a sparse landscape with a dark treeline dividing the composition, a gravel road curving through an open field beneath an overcast sky.
Monochromatic photograph of a rural landscape with a wire fence in the foreground, bare and leafy branches, and distant rolling hills obscured by haze. The muted, overexposed tones and soft focus create an atmospheric, contemplative quality of the Kansas countryside.

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