Park Min Joon, having attracted much attention with his precise brush strokes that evoke Classical paintings of the West, now returned with an imaginary troupe he named ‘Rapport Circus.’ The splendid attire and exotic props, not to mention the brilliantly decorated wild animals, are so vivid as to be modeled after real circus performers but they are entirely of the artist’s imaginary making.

All members of the troupe have specific identifying features, infused with such individuality that a personality and life story could be read off of each of their keen eyes and delicate facial expressions—yet they are characters invented, perhaps as alter egos, by the natural-born storyteller Park. Rapport, which means close connection or trust, most likely refers to the relationship amongst artist’s circus members, or to that between the members and their creator Park.

The wide and liberal brush strokes that were seen in some works from his solo exhibition in 2012 have been more aggressively employed in the backgrounds of his latest series of work for a change. Another conspicuous alteration is that the subject matters alluding to classical motifs in famous Western paintings, a longtime distinct feature of Park’s works, had receded away from the foreground. In place of them are characters of his imagination and objects embedded with behind stories that came to occupy the shallow stage-like background, generating a most surreal ambience.