ABOUT
BIOGRAPHY
Born in 1959 in Busan, South Korea, Misoon Kim is a contemporary Korean ink painter whose work explores the expressive potential of ink on hanji(traditional Korean paper). She earned her BFA from Busan National University (1982) and MFA from Hong-ik University, Seoul (1985), and taught Fine Arts at Hong-ik University and Suwon University early in her career.
Since the early 1990s, Kim has lived and worked internationally, with residencies in Paris, New Delhi, New York, Seoul, Hong Kong, and currently Washington DC. Her overseas experience has shaped series such as Relations and Traces, reflecting cross-cultural encounters and the universal energy of human life.
Selected solo exhibitions include Galerie Yves Fay, Paris (1994), France Loisir, Paris (1996), India International Center, New Delhi (2002), Mulpa Art Center, Seoul (2003), and Wellside Gallery, Seoul (2021, 2024), Expo Art Gallery, Yeosu (2022).
Key group exhibitions and collaborations include Korean New Wave, Kyoto (1984), Young Painters 1990, National Modern Art Museum, Gwacheon, Korea (1990), 90’s Selected Modern Art, Ho-am Art Gallery, Seoul (1990), Hyundae Sumuk, Seoul (1992), Modern and Contemporary Korean Ink Paintings, Kang Gallery, New York (2004), and Asian Art Fairs in New York (2005, 2007), Rabb Gallery, Berlin (2006), The 1980s and Korean Art, Jeonbuk Museum of Art,JeonJu (2015), Ink Painting Today, Choi-buk Art Museum, Muju (2022)
Her works are held in major international collections including the Ringling Museum of Art (Florida), France Loisir (Paris), Kang Collection (New York), and Hallogen Company (Germany). Kim’s disciplined, meditative process in ink wash painting transforms each brushstroke into an unrepeatable act, bringing energy and presence to the blank space of the paper.
ARTIST NOTE
Tracing Human Energy
My essential focus has always been to deepen my understanding of the nature and purpose of my life as I experience it.
Faced with the reality of a finite, unrepeateable lifetime, I see no option but to continually strive for positivity of thought and outlook.
The materials I have chosen to work with — ink and rice paper — reflect, in their very nature, this focus and my effort to express the thoughts it engenders.
Each brush stroke is a small birth that — once delivered - cannot be retouched, modified or repeated.
The subjects of my paintings are the traces of human lives; the waves of energy individual people expend in their own effort to understand their place and purpose.
The nature of this energy is extremely diverse and particular to each individual, and every single brush stroke in my paintings is representative of that individual. The diversity is expressed through variations in the strength an force of each stroke, along with the depth and concentration of the ink. (2021)
Traces-harmonics
While I have constantly shifted, modified and adjusted the style and substance of my work over the years, the core focus has largely remained the same: a contemplation of our individual finite lives in an infinite cosmos.
I find a particular beauty in the emotional energy created by our unique experience of life -- the endlessly varied interplay of humility and hubris, of gratitude and disappointment, of elation and anguish.
And I seek to visualize this energy in my work -- to illustrate the waves it generates, as well as the traces it leaves behind.
It is something akin to musical composition, with the ink - produced from wood, fire and water - finding a harmony with the silent, white paper. (2024)
News & Updates
For the latest news, upcoming exhibitions, and project updates,
as well as media or general inquiries,
please contact: misoonkimart@gmail.com