Minjung Kim

MINJUNG KIM b. 1962, Republic of Korea

“At an evening hosted by an architect friend in Milan back in the 90s a large abstract composition combining Asian calligraphy with paper collage caught my eye above the dinner table. The artist turned out to be a friend with a studio in the city. Entering Minjung’s studio felt like entering a traditional workshop, temple and small museum at the same time. An atmosphere of calm, a sensitivity for Western art while a constant buzz was in the air, all qualities that filter through into Minjung’s art: a balance of colour and shape, of light and shadow, of material and void, of animated composition and tranquillity: an overall equilibrium very few artists possess.”

(Patrick Heide)

Order-Impulse Mixed media on mulberry Hanji paper 200.5 x 139.5 cm 2017 Private Collection, UK

Velocity Mixed media on mulberry Hanji paper 200 x 140 cm 2019 â‚Ź 95,000.00 incl. VAT & frame

Achieving equilibrium has been the all-compassing force in Minjung Kim’s oeuvre, always mediating between Eastern tradition and Western modernity, blending the mystical spirituality of Taoism with the conceptual approach of Western art.

Kim’s collages are made of delicately layered sheets of thin, finely textured Korean Mulberry Hanji paper that is burnt at the edges, essentially drawing the lines with fire.

The artist explains that the most important routine of burning Hanji paper is to remain silent and to even one’s breath. To handle a paper that flutters with a single exhale and to monitor the flame that could destroy the paper in an instant, means to balance the faint movements of almost invisible waves of air.

Kim once said that mulberry Hanji paper has a tactile quality that resembles her own skin.

The Street Mixed media on mulberry Hanji paper 98 x 138 cm 2019 € 58,000.00 incl. VAT & frame

The Street Mixed media on mulberry Hanji paper 91 x 117 2016 Private Collection, Austria

For the “Street” series, executed only with ink-coloured Hanji paper burnt at the edges and then collaged, Kim picked up a motif of imaginary landscapes or “street views”. The inspiration comes from looking down from a building on a rainy day, where a bobbing mass of umbrellas was moving up and down a street.

The Street Mixed media on mulberry Hanji paper 130 x 162 cm 2016 Private Collection, Italy

Mountain Ink on mulberry Hanji paper 28 x 27 cm 2007 Private Collection, Germany

“... In Minjung Kim’s ink drawings, the location is enhanced. The gaze goes into the distance, it leads from the dark foreground to the light-filled heights.

The horizon is close to disappearing.

The tradition of drawing with ink is hundreds of years old in the Far East. The great masters used soft, wide paintbrushes. With just a few movements they whisked up a storm over the paper, told stories of fishermen and lonely travellers, their small figures exposed to the powers of nature. … Minjung Kim shows us the luminosity energy of ink. They are deep spaces that fill us with amazement, but above all with yearning. It is a yearning for distance. … The vastness in Minjung Kim’s ink drawing is a space filled with sound.

The dwindling lines of the hills are a melody. A rocking, gently undulating melody. Each of her ink drawings is the same yet different. It is as if there were nothing to discover, because everything is already there …”

(Excerpts from a text by Jean Christophe Amman, ‘Minjung Kim’, catalogue published by Patrick Heide Contemporary Art, 2010)

Red Mountain Watercolour on mulberry Hanji paper 99.5 x 66.7 cm 2013 Private Collection, Belgium

Red Mountain Watercolour on mulberry Hanji paper 40.8 x 60 cm 2014 Private Collection, France

In “Timeless” horizontal burnt lines accumulate to pause just short of the upper edge. An ink drawing, reminiscent of Kim’s “Mountain” series, is laid on top of the linear composition, the colour fading while rising, again ceasing further down from the upper edge. The calm composition leaves us with two voids to consider and two horizons to contemplate.

The oscillation between creation and destruction, the repeated, almost meditative movements unite her works to convey an almost visible transience of time.

“Timeless” imbues great tranquillity and inner balance, a state of mind and heart much desired in times of uncertainty and change.

Timeless Mixed media on mulberry Hanji paper 135 x 114 cm 2019 â‚Ź 65,000.00 incl. VAT & frame

Phasing Mixed media on mulberry Hanji paper 142 x 75 cm 2016 Private Collection, Germany

For the “Phasing” series Kim also combines the burning technique with ink markings and more complex paper layering. The title alludes to the musical term when two instruments play the same part in steady but not identical tempi, which leads to deferments in the musical piece. In her “Phasing” series Kim introduces those shifts through different layers of paper in which the overlapping shapes appear staggered or offset.

Phasing Mixed media on mulberry Hanji paper 34 x 38 cm 2016 Private Collection, UK

Phasing Mixed media on mulberry Hanji paper 35 x 35 cm 2016

Predestination Ink and mixed media on rice paper 69 x 125 cm 2013 Private Collection, France

The “Predestination� series goes back many years, grappling with the mysteries of life and its predefined courses. Each circular form seems to represent a different living entity that is joined to others by a linear system oscillating between planned and chanced meetings.

Alveare Ink and mixed media on rice paper 161.7 x 129 cm 2012

The “Alveare� series, Italian for beehive, is about the energy source of life itself, its free-floating cellular organisms the nutrient core of our existence. The oval shape, the idea of all lives of a society concentrated in one nucleus always fascinated the artist.

The connecting lines between the forms equally appear, building up a network that can endlessly grow yet somehow follows an anticipated structure.

Kim always executes her pictorial work on the floor, in keeping with Asian tradition, as the floor is, both literally and metaphorically, the basic support for all painting.

The artistic process is newly experienced every day, even through repetitive rituals. Not the artist’s personality, a celebrity in the Western world, is essential but the creative energy he expresses. Not the current sociopolitical situation is inspiration but the timeless message it conveys.

Minjung Kim’s practice follows principal Western ideas of form and conceptual strategy. However, Tao philosophy, where the journey is more relevant than the destination, is more important for meaning and content.

The artist’s vocation is to detect the inner tension of the universe, the cyclicality inherent in every natural transformation.

This attitude calls for a strong mental discipline, which Minjung Kim quietly possesses. On a metaphysical level art and life become one.

Installation view at TEFAF Maastricht 2020 Private Collection, Switzerland

Story (detail) Mixed media on mulberry Hanji paper 140 x 200 cm 2019

Installation view at TEFAF Maastricht 2019 Private Collection, Paris

MINJUNG KIM Born in 1962, Gwangju, Republic of Korea Lives and works in France and USA Education MFA, Brera Academy of Fine Art, Milan, Italy MFA, Oriental Painting, Hongik University, Seoul, Korea BFA, Oriental Painting, Hongik University, Seoul, Korea Selected Solo Exhibitions 2020 2019 2018 2017

2016 2015 2014

2013 2012 2010

2009 2008 2007 2006 2004 2003

Minjung Kim, Hill Art Fundation, New York Minjung Kim Langen Foundation, Neuss Mingunj Kim, Galerie Catherine Issert Minjunh Kim, Galería Cayón, Mahón, Menorca Minjung Kim: Mountains, Robilant+Voena Fine Art Gallery, St. Moritz Making the Void, Filling the Void, Gwangju Museum of Art, Korea The Memory of Process, White Cube, London Oneness, Aloft at Hermès, Hermes Foundation, Singapore Cendre et Lumiere, Musée des Arts Asiatiques, Nice Phasing, Patrick Heide Contemporary Art, London Paper, Ink and Fire: After the Process, Gallery Hyundai, Seoul, Korea Gallery HYUNDAI, Seoul Phasing, Galerie Volker Diehl, Berlin Minjung Kim, Leslie Sacks Gallery, Santa Monica, Los Angeles The Light, The Shade, The Depth, Luxembourg & Dayan, Venice Traces, OCI, Museum of Art, South Korea Galerie Commeter, Hamburg Leslie Sacks Fine Art, Los Angeles Galerie Commeter, Hamburg Studio d'Arte Raffaelli (Palazzo Wolkenstein), Trento Oko, New York Patrick Heide Contemporary Art, London The Sound of Light, Macro Testaccio, Rome Leslie Sacks Gallery Los Angeles Galleria Sahrai, Milan Kunsthandel Fans Jacobs, Paris Sharai, Milan Galleria Sant Angelo, Biella Primo Spazio, Foligno Galleria Valeria Bella Stampe, Milan Patrick Heide Contemporary Art, London Galleria Ermanno Tedeschi, Rome Galleria Ermanno Tedeschi, Turin Robilant+Voena Fine Art Gallery, London Mudimadrie Gallerie, Antwerp Leslie Sacks Fine Art, Los Angeles Patrick Heide Contemporary Art, London Giudecca795 Galleria d’Arte, Venice Montecarlo Art Gallery, Milan Fondazione Palazzo Bricherasio, Turin Galleria Valeria Bella Stampe, Milan Arte92, Milan Ikos, Modena Museo Comunale di Ascona, Ascona (catalogue with a text of Roberto Borghi) Leslie Sacks Gallery, Los Angeles Gallerie Patrick Cramer, Geneva

2002

1999 1998 1997 1996 1991

Galleria Recalcati, Turin Cophenhagen Gallery, Cophenhagen Galleria Civica d'Arte Contemporanea, San Marino Galleria Cafiso, Milan Wickeiser Gallery, New York Galerie Patrick Cramer, Geneva (catalogue with a text of Roberto Borghi) Galleria Cafiso, Milan (catalogue with texts of Luciano Caramel and Roberto Borghi) Cappella di Villa Ruffolo, Ravello, Naples Galleria Arte Borgogna, Milan (catalogue with texts of Cristina Cano, Jacqueline Ceresoli and Gianni Schubert) Galleria Kontraste, Forte dei Marmi Baik Song Gallery, Seoul (catalogue with text of Suh Seong Rock) Injae Art Museum, Gwangju

Selected Group Exhibitions 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2012 2011 2010 2009

2008 2007 2004 2002 2001

1998 1997

1996

Pushing Paper: From 1970 to now, The British Museum, London Imagined Borders, Gwangju Biennale Clouds Stretching from a Thousand Miles: Ink in Asia, Asia Society, New York Changwon Sculpture Biennale, Changwon, Korea The Mulberry Forest Becoming Ocean, Esther Schipper, Berlin Korea Gallery, The British Museum, London Moi & Les Autres, Galerie Catherine issert, St. Paul de Vence Viewing The Past Thru Modern Eyes, Kang Collection, New York Happy Modern and Contemporary Korean Paintings, Kang Collection, New York The Gaze of... Selected Works of the Unicredit Art Collection, Uncredit Pavillon, Milan Abstraction: 1911-2014, Leslie Sacks Fine Art, Los Angeles Maestri antichi, moderni imprenditori, Galleria Valeria Bella Stampe, Milan World, Ermanno Tedeschi Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israele Tefaf 2012, Jacobs Fine Art Gallery New! Galleria Valeria Bella Stampe, Milan Settimana della Corea, Bologna, Santa Maria della Vita Galleria E. Tedeschi, Tel Aviv Landscape and Memory, Patrick Heide Contemporary Art, London Twilight Zone, Galerie Morgen, Berlin Patrick Heide Contemporary Art, London Tefaf09 Maastricht Across the Cross (Michelangelo e I contemporanei), Trapani La Biennale di Venezia, Venice Galleria La Giarina, Verona Galleria E.Tedeschi, Complesso del Vittoriano, Rome Prospects and interiors-cultors drawings, Henry Moore Institute, Leeds Tefaf08 Maastricht Art Basel – Gallery von Bartha Biennale Gwangiu Mostra collettiva, Galleria Cafiso, Milan Paris, New York, Washington D.C. The Odyssey 2001, Korean Republic Embassy Washington (curated by Gregory Shook) Galleria Copenhagen, Copenhagen Simboli e simbolismi nell'arte contemporanea, Ticosa Spazio a Shed, Como Mostra di incisioni, Sala Grassi, Corbetta, Milan Territori di frontiera, Spazio Laboratorio Hajech, Milan Ad Imaginem, Spazio Linati, Milan Arti visive, Circolo Culturale Bertold Brecht, Milan Pittura e scultura del terzo millennio, Casa del Rigoletto, Mantova (catalogue with text of Adriano Amati) Mostra collettiva, Galleria Borgogna, Milan Mostra collettiva, Galleria Cafiso, Milan Incisione collettiva, Castello di Galliate, Galliate, Novara Mostra collettiva, Galleria Kontraste, Forte dei Marmi Mimesis, Galleria della Cassa di Risparmio di Caldaro, Bolzano

1995 1994

1991 1990 1989 1988

1987

1986

1985

Nel segno della Luna, Rocca Malatestiana, Montefiore Conca International Exhibition of Art Colleges Hiroshima '95, Hiroshima Quali differenze, Galleria Arcadia Nuova, Milan (curated by Mario Benedetti) Mostra Collettiva, Galleria Cafiso, Milan Brera a Venezia, Liceo Artistico Statale, Venice Dove sostano gli Dei, Centro Storico di Saronno (catalogue with texts of Fernando De Filippi and Debora Ferrari) First Price International competition, Fanum Fortunae, Fano Sequenze d'Arte Contemporanea, Torre di Ligny - Museo della Preistoria, Trapani Salon I '94, Galleria Arte Borgogna, Milan Salon I '94, Villa Litta Carini, Milan S.B.C. European competition '94, Swiss Bank House, London Mostra collettiva, Galleria Cafiso, Milan La Stampa Originale, Civica Biblioteca d'Arte del Castello Sforzesco, Milan (catalogue with text of Angela Occhipinti) Salon I, Living Art Gallery, Milan Mostra collettiva, Galleria Kontraste, Forte dei Marmi Pure Korean Art, National Museum of Modern Art, Kwachun Korean painting - Prospettiva Anni '90, Art Centre, Seoul Night with the Artist, Intercontinental Hotel, Seoul Corrent Seoul, Art Centre, Seoul Coreana painting- 43 Artist Invited, Chosun Press Center Museum, Seoul Yieon, Kwanghoon Art Museum, Seoul Consciousness of transition in the Korean modern painting, Kwanghoon Art Museum, Kwanghoon Chunchu, Osaka International Culture Exchange Center, Osaka Plastic Art for today and tomorrow - 16 Artists, Dongduk Art Gallery, Seoul Yeobaik - 16 Artisti, Baikak Art Center, Seoul New Plastic Art, Chunbuk Art Center, Seoul Chunchu, Seoul City Museum, Seoul Yieyeon, Dongduk Gallery, Seoul New-Expressionism Korean painting, Art Centre, Seoul Korean painting - 10 Artist research, Kwanhoon Art Museum, Seoul Post Art, '3 Gallery, Seoul Section of Korean Modern painting, Chunbuk Art Centre, Seoul Chunchu, Art Center, Seoul Works of Korean paintings, Museum of Kong Ik, Seoul Yiyeon, Kwanhoon Art Museum, Seoul Hanmoim Incisione, Kwanhoon Art Museum, Seoul Korean painting. The differences, Art Centre, Seoul Oriental painting Hong Ik, Kyung In Art Museum, Seoul Modern Korean visual art, Art Centre, Seoul Chunchu, Art Centre, Seoul Yiyeon, Kwanhoon Art Museum, Seoul

Selected Public Collections Story, Fundación Helga de Alvear, Cáceres, Spain The Street, Swiss Re Art Collection, Zürich, Switzerland Phasing, Asia Society, New York, USA Mutation, Asia Society, New York, USA Phasing, The British Museum, London, UK The Room, The British Museum, London, UK Mountain, The British Museum, London, UK Story, Musée des Arts Asiatiques, Paris, France Pieno di Vuoto, Musée des Arts Asiatiques, Paris, France Dobae, OCI Museum, Korea Female, Fondazione Palazzo Bricherasio, Turin, Italy Story, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, USA Pieno di Vuoto, UniCredit, Milan, Italy