Leo Park to Talks to Whitehot Magazine About His Paintings

Artist Leo Park, photo by Per Englund 

By NOAH BECKER MAY 11, 2025

I spoke to painter Leo Park. His work is really interesting to me, top level painting full of fresh ideas and an intriguing use of form and color. Park is also showing his new scupltures. I'm always gathering new information and ideas from other painters as a way of informing my own work.

Read our conversation for Whitehot Magazine below...
 

NOAH BECKER: Your paintings merge contemporary visual language with echoes of ancient art forms—how did this fusion of graffiti, tattoos, and cave painting become central to your work?

LEO PARK: The fusion between e.g. tattoos and graffiti concerns mainly the properties of the tattoos that inherit my figures. My tattoos/inscriptions belong to the flat world of line drawing. That is a visual language that people always used to distinguish themself from their surroundings. I like that flat realm, because you can compress different time periods and cultures into one surface, so you have multiplicity and unity at the same time. In the tattoos I draw inspiration from all kinds of written languages along with ornaments and symbols from different cultures.

The tattoos began because I had two very different methods; these simplified, biomorphic line drawings and very painterly figurative works. I was also intrigued by the motif of the tattooed figure because it hardly exists in older art, so I combined my two methods.

You often explore universal themes like desire, creation, and death through mythic figures and symbols. What draws you to these archetypes, and how do they speak to our current moment?

I have a strong belief in the rhyme. Myths rhyme throughout history, creating a cultural rythm of the archetype, that we hang our fears, desires and traumas onto. More often than not, I discover some very old theme or lore somewhere, and find it very useful for our current times.
 

Installation view, Leo Park, Gallery Steinsland Berliner, 2025
 

The bodies in your paintings act as both subjects and surfaces, covered in inscriptions. How do you think about the relationship between language, the body, and identity in your work?

Yes I there is a tension between these  two methods in my work. My figures are concerned with a body in a landscape, or a room. It deals with space, light, volume and gesture. The materiality of paint, subject matter, and how to render a body in different ways. I like to play with the conventions of a depicted body, and I sometimes call my figures paintings of sculptures of humans, or sculptures with a nervous system. To add this meta layer I can free myself from the restraints of a conventional body.

Then there are the tattoos. When I was young I painted graffiti, and there was a lot of rune stones where I grew up. All these things have similarities in how cultural marks occupies a territory. It is a form of invasion. To a body, a building, or a surface in nature. But it  simultaneously becomes symbiotic with it. It speaks about the tension between culture and nature. 
 

Leo Park, Bed Scene, 2025, Oil on canvas, 120 x 100 x 4 cm
 

You’ve described your work as situated in the Post-digital age. What does that term mean to you, and how does it inform your approach to painting in a digital world?

I dont think I ever used that term to describe my work, but I think someone else did. I guess it makes sense if you mean my work is affected visually by the digital era. I think how my figures look is affected by the endless alterations that are possible to an image in the digital era. In my current show in Stockholm, I have a painting that is 5 meters wide, and derives from another earlier painting called The Lovers (Miami Remix), that I was showing in Miami. When I was planning my Stockholm show, I laid out a bunch of old paintings on my computer desktop, with The Lovers-painting and a render image of the gallery space along with them. Just to set some visual direction. Then I accidentally skewed the The Lovers-image. I liked the uncanny effect it had on me, and how it could alter the experience of a room. And all these associations came up, like the Rubber Soul album cover, and The Ambassadors by Holbein etc. So I made Líf & Lífþrasir with the old painting skewed as a direct reference. That would probably never have happened without a computer,  though that technical trick was pretty basic. But even though I use the computer in my practice, screens don't turn me on much. I could easily work without them.

Leo Park, Bed Scene (Pink), 2025, Oil on canvas, 120 x 90 cm
 

Your exhibitions span cities from Berlin to New York to Shanghai. How do you see your work being received in different cultural contexts, and does that influence what or how you paint?

I felt early on that I needed to expand outside Sweden. I have met appreciation in Sweden too, but I really wanted to be part of an international conversation, which I find less narrow minded. Having said that I am very interested in exploring your local imagery, your local older painters etc. Just the stuff you grew up with, which is connected to the nature around you. In a globalized flattened visual space, I think that will be increasingly important. I just recently realized that one of my biggest influences has been the sculptor Bror Hjorth, who lived in the small town in Sweden where I grew up. His work was everywhere when I was a kid. But he also studied in Paris with Giacometti.

When I first showed my work in America I thought my imagery would be a little too much for some, but it went fine.

Leo Park, Nude, 2025, Polystyrene, concrete, gypsum, acrylic resin, Flashe-paint, acrylic varnish, 94 x 116 x 34 cm
 

Since receiving your MFA from Konstfack in 2019, your trajectory has been notably international and dynamic. How has your education shaped the way you develop your visual language today?

I would say that I have been much more shaped by colleagues I met along the way, together with all the art I've seen. 

With awards from both the Royal Swedish Academy and the Arts Grants Committee, how do these kinds of institutional recognitions influence your practice, if at all?

I like The Royal Swedish Academy because it consists of a lot of artists. Often from an older generation, so that connection feels nice.

What is coming up for you?

I just exhibited sculpture for the first time, so I definitely going to do more of that in some form. My solo show EDGE at Gallery Steinsland Berliner runs through May 18, and I will also be in Market Art Fair Stockholm at the same time. In August I will be partaking in Chart Art Fair in Copenhagen. Next year I have some exciting things that I can't talk about yet, but it is outside Europe and will be awesome. WM