“In my designs, I want objects to speak for themselves. To be beautiful, attractive and engage with their surroundings. My work embraces simplicity, purity, and subtlety. People who experience my design have the space to explore their own sensations and emotions,” says Wonmin Park. 

Wonmin Park was born in 1982 in Seoul, South Korea. After graduating from the Design Academy, in Eindhoven in 2011, Park worked with a series of prestigious design companies in the Netherlands before establishing Studio Wonmin Park in 2012. He later established a production facility in Rotterdam and a creative studio in Paris.  

To highlight the aesthetic appeal of his pieces, Park uses resin and metal – materials selected for their ability to create a surreal, dream-like quality. “I like resin because of its colour, transparency, and texture, but it is not a strong material. Therefore, I needed to create a certain form of structure”, explains Park. The artist combines these two seemingly opposite materials – one transparent and opaque, the other fragile and sturdy – with perfection. This combination of materials gives the viewer the illusion that Park’s artworks are simply bound together by light and air. In the painting process, Park begins by mixing of primary pigments to create an envisioned colour. The pigments are added to moulds of the resin sections and a muted colouration is obtained within the slabs to maintain their translucency – an element that allows the colours to engage each other in the joints of the structures he creates. Park’s designs sit on the axis between minimal and practical, but always contain an element of dissonance that creates a sense of balance and tension within the work. His furniture takes the shape of a sculpture which demands to be visually appreciated and his designs are considered practical commodities as well as fine art. 

Park now lives and works in Paris, a city he considers essential for its historical and cultural design heritage. His work will be included in the upcoming MONUMENTAL exhibition at Ladbroke Hall in 2024. His work has also been included in many exhibitions globally including Salone del Mobile, the Guild Design Fair, Cape Town , South Africa, the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea, the Musée des Arts Decoratifs, Paris, France. In 2023, Wonmin Park collaborated with Dior to create the Lady Dior Ice Bag –using resin to express the ice.  

Park received his first awards in 2014. He won the Wallpaper* Design Awards for Best transparency and was chosen as Global star designer at the Korea Institute of Design Promotion. Park was also nominated for the IMM Cologne’s D3 Contest Awards. The following year he was the winner of the Rising Asian Talent Award for Maison et Objet. In 2022 Park won the Wallpaper* Design Award again for Best odes to nature ‘Plain cuts stone & steel’ 

National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art / Seoul, Korea, 2014