▲ Korean Ink on Jangji, 130x162cm, 2023 ⓒ Jung-wook Kim

Kim is a Korean painter who has built her own art world with a strong sense of contrast and unique painting style. She uses ink to depict humans, energy, life, and curiosity about the universe. Her own cute and eerie painting style already has the recognition of many art lovers.

She is evaluated for suggesting the direction of new Korean painting with her own unique expression method while continuing the existing techniques centering on traditional materials such as ink and Jang-ji. In the exhibition, she will present a new painting again with a three-dimensional work that combines ceramic and painting.

▲ Korean Ink and color, collage on Jang-ji, 125x162cm, 2023 ⓒ Jung-wook Kim

She chose 'face' as the theme of the exhibition. The proportion of the head and neck to the total area of human skin is 9% on average for Korean people, and the face is only 2.5%. The artist pays attention to the fact that the face is an object of longing and love, even though it is such a small area of the body.

The artist expresses cosmic vitality by using the eyes, nose, mouth, and even the entire face as the material of the painting. The face has various meanings as a symbol or object itself that contains everything about humans.

▲ Korean Ink and color on Jang-ji, 162x130cm, 2023 ⓒ Jung-wook Kim

Kim explains her work philosophy, saying, "I feel that much work is neither done nor done entirely by myself" and added, "I can barely embrace one thing only when will, desire, sincerity, attraction, and fate follow".

The exhibition will be held at the OCI Museum of Art in Jongro-gu, Seoul until Feb. 8 next year.

▲ The poster of the exhibition ⓒ Jung-wook Kim, OCI Museum

Sayart / Nao Yim, yimnao@naver.com