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Minjung Kim (born 18 January 1962) is a contemporary Korean artist best known for her art using mulberry hanji paper (Korean traditional paper), often using fire to burn or singe the edge of the paper with incense or a candlestick. Based in South France and New York, she commits to re-interpreting traditional Korean aesthetics and employs a process-based organization of her thoughts, problems, and whims in each of her artworks.

Early Life and Education
Kim was born in Gwangju, South Korea on 18 January 1962. She studied calligraphy and watercolor painting from an early age and went on to major in oriental painting as an undergraduate and graduate student at Hongik University in Seoul. She then studied abroad at Milan’s Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera. During her studies in Europe, she was inspired by artists like Constantin Brâncusi, Carl Andre, and Brice Marden.

Mountain
Unlike many of Kim’s works that collage burned pieces of hanji paper, Mountain is the artist’s only ink painting series. It features gradient-like, monochrome compositions of watercolour, also on Hanji paper. The craggy undulating shapes can be read as mountains, their peak-like formations bringing to mind the eerie landscapes painted on traditional Korean handscrolls. But the watery properties of the material also make it possible for the works to be seen as oceanic snapshots, the ink-stained water lapping at the viewer’s feet, its color gradually diluting as it sways away

Timeless
Timeless summarizes the complexities of Kim’s creative process: the persistent beauty of Korean hanji paper that endures thousands of years, the artist’s ritualistic act of evening her breath before burning Korean paper, then the repetitive, labor-intensive process of meticulously placing those pieces of paper by hand. Furthermore, it reflects her intention to visualize in the language of contemporary art revelations of East Asian philosophy such as reincarnation, Yin and Yang, emptiness and fullness.

Phasing
The "Phasing" 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. Kim introduces those shifts through different layers of paper combined with burning in which the overlapping shapes appear staggered or offset.

The Street
The “Street” series, executed only with ink-coloured hanji paper burnt at the edges and then collaged, Kim has picked up an older 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.

Order and Impulse
In Order and Impulse coin-sized circles of hanji are laid down in a single layer over a piece of colored paper. The arrangement of these shapes is entirely improvised by Kim. After affixing glue to the surface of a given cutout, she folds over one of its edges onto itself, configuring a field of two-toned crescents that manipulates viewers’ perceptions of flatness and depth

Pieno di Vuoto
In the ‘Pieno di Vuoto’ series, (which loosely translates as ‘full of emptiness’), circular pieces of hanji paper, painted in bright colours and burnt to create a central hole, are applied in an overlapping fashion. This results in colorful, all-over compositions, where each element appears to jostle for its own space within the crowded picture plane. By incrementing the size of the holes each time and superimposing voids with solids, Kim traces the relationship between matter and emptiness and articulates the circle as a form without beginning or end. The multiple layers of voids in these works create, conversely, a sense of fullness, achieving what Kim has described as the ‘essence of chaos’.

Art Market
Kim's auction record is $189,000 for Vuoto nel Pieno set at Christie's New York on 17 November 2022

Solo Exhibitions
Some of Kim's more significant solo exhibitions include :


 * Marco (Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Roma), Rome (2012)
 * Hermès Foundation, Singapore (2017)
 * White Cube, London (2018)
 * Langen Foundation, Neuss (2019)
 * Hill Art Foundation, New York (2020)