Chang Dae Park “When Harlem Was Blue”

Able Fine Art NY Gallery

This event has ended.

Able Fine Art NY Gallery presents, “When Harlem Was Blue,” an exhibition of large scale photographic works by artist Changdae Park. Following his debut at Able Fine Art NY in the successful 2016 gallery artists exhibition, “We Are a Landscape of All We Have Seen,” this will be Changdae Park’s first solo exhibition at Able. It offers a thoughtful look at a unique body of work.

After extensive studies in photographic art both in the United States and in Korea, Park turned his lens to the streets of New York city’s famed Harlem neighborhood. This rich, cultural center has been home and inspiration for visual artists like Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, and Faith Ringgold; writers like Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston and James Baldwin; and the acclaimed photographer Gordon Parks. But it is music for which Harlem is probably best known worldwide. This crucible of Jazz and Swing saw Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, and Duke Ellington, and later stars of Soul, Hip Hop, and Rap music fill legendary venues like the Apollo Theater.

To this day, Harlem draws artists and creators from around the world, as Park, himself, was drawn to its streets and clubs, its people and its energy. Park’s photographs capture unguarded moments of musicians performing; he freezes the hustle of crowds and shines a light on simple interiors, barber shops, and stores, the everyday spaces where life takes place.

Park suggests that, rather than depicting the world he dreams of, he’d rather find the truth. Part of his method of capturing reality is through writing. For each photograph in the exhibition, Park has written a free verse poem which will be included in the exhibition. He writes of harmony, tension, love, and bravery. But all those are in service of the search for truth – or, as Park states it, “the chance to get the source of intelligence in the shadow.”