Young-Hun KIM

Kim Young-Hun applies ancestral techniques from traditional Korean painting to represent abstract images inspired by digital screen disturbances. By using both the painter’s classic colour palette and the hyper-saturated colours of digital screens, he bears witness to the mental and visual universe of a generation that has passed from an analogue to a digital world.

As a child, watching black and white television with his parents, he was fascinated by the disturbed images on the television screen during violent storms. The controlled tremors of his brush movements, rhythm breaks, distortions, are all references to these interferences on screens. His paintings possess this disruptive energy of forms, energy that also comes from the use of contemporary, digital and saturated colours, such as roses and greens, particularly in the paintings of 2018. The most recent paintings made in New York have more white and light sections, more soothing, going as far as his first monochrome painting.

Nevertheless, these paintings are visual oxymores describing a quiet violence and a contemporaneity in the continuity of ancestral techniques. Kim Young-Hun is inspired by a traditional horn painting technique called Hyukpil, which consists of using a single layer of paint with a large brush covered in several colours in a single continuous movement. Each hand tremor becomes a permanent trace. These modulatory lines may also suggest movements of nature, such as cloud formations or waterfalls, conscious and unconscious references to traditional Korean landscape paintings. For this reason, his paintings can also inspire a quiet and meditative contemplation.
In addition, these fluid brush lines contour rectangular blocks of coloured masses of classic, more sober colours, providing stability to the composition that the brush lines must contour. The artist places these geometric blocks first on the blank canvas. With reference to the theories of chaos, they could be considered as the initial conditions. The analogy is relevant insofar as the artist relies on them to design his brush movements with a powerful determinism.

The advent of the digital revolution is the defining event of this generation of artists and Kim Young-Hun translates it visually by making it part of the history of painting.

1964 born in Nonsan, South Korea

EDUCATION:

2008 M.F.A. Chelsea college of Art and design, University of Arts London
2006-2007 Goldsmiths college, University of London
1988-1992 B.F.A Hongik University, Seoul

RESIDENCY PROGRAMS AND AWARDS:

2003 Höherweg 271, Dusseldorf, Germany
2000,3-2002, 2 Samsung residency program, Cite Internationale des Arts, Paris, France
1996 Freeman fellowship, Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, Vermont, U.S.A
1995 Grand prize, Joongang Fine Art Prize, Seoul

COLLECTIONS:

Art Bank-National Contemporary Art Museum, Seoul
Government Art Bank-National Contemporary Art Museum, Seoul,
Bank of America, New York
ZAHA Museum, Seoul,
Sung-kok Art Museum, Seoul,
Samsung Museum of Art Leeum, Seoul
The Arts Club, London,
Kolon Group, Seoul,
KOEX Kimchi Museum, Seoul

SOLO EXHIBITIONS (selection):

2023 Meta River, Galerie Richard, Paris, France
Meta River, Soluna Fine Art, Hong Kong

2021 Rippe Ripple, Soluna Fine Art, Hong Kong

2020 Diamond Mountain: Electronic Nostalgia, Soluna Fine Art, Hong Kong
Kim Young-Hun, Volta New York, Galerie Richard, Paris, France

2019 Electronic Nostalgia, Paris, France
Electronic Nostalgia, Richard, New York, NY

2017 Virtual-Scape, Choi&Lager Gallery, Séoul

2016 Noise-Electronic Nostalgia, Gail Art Museum, Gapyung, Corée du Sud

2013 Cloud Map, Space K, Daegu, South Korea

2012 Cloud Map, ZAHA Museum, Séoul
Cloud Map, Nuovo gallery, Daegu, South Korea

2010 Electronic Nostalgia-Broken Dream, Sung-Kok Art Museum, Séoul

2003 Höherweg 271 Studios, Dusseldorf, Allemagne

2002 Espace Icar, Issy-les-Moulineaux, Paris, France

2001 Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France

1997 Dark Side of the Moon, Woong-Jun gallery, Séoul

1995 Total Museum of Contemporary Art, Jang-heung, Corée du Sud

GROUP EXHIBITIONS (selection):

2023 Art Paris, Galerie Richard, Paris
Art Basel, Hong Kong, Hakgojae Gallery, Seoul
Eui-geum-sang-gyeong: Over her embroidered robe she puts on a plain garment,Hakgojae, Gallery, Seoul

2022 Ways of Seeing, Jari Lager Gallery, Cologne, Allmange
Boundless, One Art Space, New York
Ode to the Moon, Korean Cultural Center, Central, Hong Kong
Comprehensive Judgement, Yoonsun Gallery, Daegu, Corée du Sud
Reflection, Soluna Fine Art, Hong Kong

2021 Total Support for Total Museum, Total Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul
Prism, Soluna Fine Art, Hong Kong
Pars Pro Toto, Cian Art Museum, Yeongcheon, Corée du Sud
Master Pieces, Galerie Richard, Paris

2020 Exposition de deux peintres, avec Hervé Heuzé, Galerie Richard, Paris

2019 Hyper Salon, U art space, Seoul
In Line, Made art space, New York
4482, Gallery Selo Arts, Seoul

2018 Color Matters, Richard, New York, NY
Kim Young-Hun, Kim Jin, gallery Lee Bae, Busan, Corée du Sud

2017 Visualizing Today, Hongik Museum of Art, Séoul
Imperfect Consonance – YoungHun Kim & Robert Muntean, UNC gallery, Séoul
Natural Selection, Christy, Hong Kong

2016 The Middle Distance – Shane Bradford & KIM Young-Hun, Choi&Lager Gallery, Cologne, Allemagne
Visual Arithmetic: The 64 Formal codes, Lee Eugean gallery, Séoul
Please Return to Busan Port. Vestfossen Museum, Norvège
Noise-Electronic Nostalgia, Paik Haeyoung gallery DDP space, Séoul

2015 SamSaikDo, Jaha Museum, Séoul
Have a good day, Mr. Kim, Kunstraüme, Cologne, Allemagne

2014 Neo Sansu, Daegu art museum, Daegu, Corée du Sud
Best Portrait Collection-Artist’s Room, gallery won, Séoul

2013 Hom Utopicus, Hada Contemporary, London, Royaume-Uni
Korean Contemporary Painting-33 Artists, Kangdong art center gallery, Séoul
Presents from Artists, gallery Sein, Séoul
Multi Effect, gallery Ihn, Séoul
British Impact, gallery Lee & Bae, Pusan, Corée du Sud
Fantasy Will be There, Daegu art factory, Daegu, Corée du Sud

2012 Kumkang Nature Art Biennale, Gong-Ju, Corée du Sud
Transformed Human, Spaec K, Kwang-Ju, Corée du Sud
The Secret, Kwangju Museum of Art, Kwang-Ju, Busan Museum of Art, Busan, ARKO Art Center, Séoul

2011 From a Distance, Keep a Distance, Sungkok Art Museum, Séoul
31 Emerging Artists, Gallery forest, Séoul
Pity on Utopia, Art space LOO, Séoul

2010 Art Actually, Gallery Kunstdoc, Séoul
Electronic Nostalgia, Mullae art factory, Séoul
Art Share, Dong-duk art gallery, Séoul
Over the Rainbow, Sungkok Art Museum, Séoul

2009 Digital/Multiple Emotion, Sejul gallery, Séoul
Nomadic Project (Time and Space), Dalanzadgad City Museum, Gobi, Mongolie
‘Defamiliarisation’ by Anna art project, Nolias gallery, London, Royaume-Uni

2008 4482, Oxo tower, Barge house, London, Royaume-Uni
Condensation 2008, Desima gallery, London, Royaume-Uni

2007 4482, Kingston business park, London, Royaume-Uni

2003 Kim Young-Hun & Moon ByungTak, Ingolstadt city gallery, Ingolstadt, Allemagne

2002 Kim Young-Hun & Christelle Spano, Paris Project Room, Paris, France
Biennale d’art contemporain de Saint-Cloud ‘Nature Cult’, Musée des Yvelines, France
Waldkunstpfad (Forest Art Path), Black Forest, Darmstadt , Allemagne
Jeune Création 2002, Grande Halle de la Villette, Paris, France

2001 It’s a Wonderful World – Sol, Mur, Temps, Espace artsenal, Issy-les-Moulineaux, France
Un Certain Regard sur la Nature, Abbatiale, Bernay, France
0 + X, Espace Bateau-Lavoir, Paris, France
Energie Raum, Städtische Galerie Dreieich, Dreieich, Allemagne
Jeune Création 2001, Grande Halle de la Villette, Paris, France

2000 Fiestalux, Rue de Pont Neuf, Paris, France
Media Art 21-Virtually Yours, Sejong Art Center, Séoul

1999 ’99 Environmental Art Festival, Kwanghwa Mun Station, Séoul
Blasphemy-Dying to be Cruel, Monstrous, Strange, Total Museum of Contemporary Art, Séoul

1998 Inchon Multimedia Art Festival, Inchon Art Center, Corée du Sud

1997 Our Cultural Legacy – View Point of Today, Sung-Kok Art Museum, Séoul
Dismantlement and revival-D.M.Z, ARKO Art Center, Séoul
Body as Text, Kumho Art Museum, Séoul

1996 The Stream of The New Generation; Technology and Anti-Technology, ARKO Art Center, Séoul
Good Morning Mr. Stomach, Gihon river project, Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, É-U

1995 Joong-ang Fine Arts Prize, Séoul Museum of Art

1994 Review 1995-Today, gallery doll, Séoul
New Prospect ’94, Moran Museum of Art, Kyungki-do, Corée du Sud