“A Man Asleep” presents 29 new works at Arario Gallery Seoul through Oct. 24

Korean artist Kim Inbai is presenting “A Man Asleep,” his first solo exhibition at Arario Gallery Seoul in 12 years.

Occupying all four floors of the gallery, the exhibition brings together 29 new sculptures and works on paper. It follows Kim’s 2014 solo presentation “Remove Point, Line and Plane” at the same venue.

The title comes from Georges Perec’s novel “A Man Asleep.” The exhibition draws on the distance between the novel’s second-person narrator and the figure repeatedly addressed as “you,” who remains impossible to apprehend fully despite sustained observation.

Kim approaches a similar gap between language, perception and physical form. Instead of reproducing a visible object precisely, he removes sight from the sculptural process or translates devices associated with pictorial depth into structures that can be touched.

Works on the first floor originated from an imagined condition in which the artist places only his hands inside a dark box and models forms without seeing them. The resulting torsos and heads contain altered proportions, compressed surfaces and displaced anatomical features.

These works treat distortion not simply as an error but as a record of tactile movement. “Grasp and Release” begins with the action of squeezing and opening the hand, while “While Moving” follows the process of constructing a form without visual confirmation.

In the basement, Kim turns to perspective. “Touching Perspective” was produced by placing paper directly against a textured support and rubbing its surface. Although the image suggests a space receding toward a vanishing point, it was made through close physical contact between the paper, support and artist’s hand.

“A-Frame Ladder” connects the narrowing structure of a ladder with the vanishing point of linear perspective. “Pillar of Light,” made by rubbing oil stick over a polyhedral framework, translates atmospheric perspective from a pictorial device into a three-dimensional object.

Works on the gallery’s upper floors extend the inquiry to boundaries and collaboration. Cast impressions of road markings continue across an interior wall, while projects involving two participants show how attempts to produce identical images and forms result in physical differences.

Born in Seoul in 1978, Kim received undergraduate and graduate degrees in sculpture from Hongik University. His previous solo exhibitions have been held at Arario Gallery in Seoul and Shanghai, Perigee Gallery and Doosan Gallery New York. He received the 35th Kim Sechoong Young Sculptor Award in 2024.

“A Man Asleep” continues at Arario Gallery Seoul through Oct. 24. The gallery will remain open until 10 p.m. on Sept. 3 as part of Samcheong Night.

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Maria Kim sayart2022@gmail.com