ON VIEW JUNE 27 – AUGUST 31, 2024OPENING RECEPTION FOR THE ARTIST
THURSDAY, JUNE 27 FROM 6-8PM
As a youth entering school in America, Helen Kim was stunned by the
beauty of the art on display. Set high on the wall above the
chalkboard, the twenty-six drawings were unlike anything she’d ever
encountered growing up in Korea. “I didn’t know English when my
family moved to the U.S.,” she says. “So much was unfamiliar to
me.” Learning that the drawings were the English alphabet, she was
elated, and even more delighted when she learned to draw the letters
for herself. “When I eventually learned cursive shortly afterwards,
I was lauded for my beautiful penmanship,” she recalls. “It masked
the contents of what I was writing, which was not my forte.”
Decades later, handwriting remains central to Kim’s artistic
practice, an essential dimension of oil paintings that contain layers
of enigmatic lettering in conversation with saturated color fields.
Modernism is pleased to present over 40 recent works in _Story Lines_,
on view from June 27 to August 31, 2024.
The exhibition title reflects Kim’s artistic process. “My life’s
stories are visually narrated and abstracted in my paintings,” Kim
says. “These memories and events, which have shaped who I am, are
the conceptual catalyst for my art.”
In addition to the memories of the mesmerizing English alphabet, Kim
is deeply influenced by the material world of her childhood. She was
especially taken by the vivid colors of traditional Korean ceremonial
clothing, and the saturated hues of silk gift pouches containing money
or jewelry, as notable for the ornate designs of the fabric as the
objects they contained. And then there were the bright colors of
persimmons, apples and pears, set out on birthdays and anniversaries.
“I was intrigued by the offset, repetitive pattern of the organic
shapes of the fruit arrangements,” she remembers.
These memories are embedded in her paintings, often reflected in
titles such as _Taste of Candy_ and _Lucky Penny_. Even if the viewer
is unfamiliar with the specifics, the specificity of the memories is
apparent, and leads the viewer to vicariously experience the
artist’s feelings and thoughts past and present.
Like memories, the paintings have many layers. Kim begins with a
single color. After applying a field of oil and cold wax to the panel,
she draws with oil sticks, often inscribing particular words because
of the shapes the cursive letters make. Frequently drawn with her
non-dominant hand, the letterforms serve as the first move in a visual
puzzle that Kim works through by alternate layers of color and line
until a solution is reached.
The result is a sort of palimpsest replete with pentimenti. Kim sees
the process as “about the interpretation, exploration and execution
of an idea,” every stage of which is preserved in the depth of oil
and cold wax. Although there are resonances with the paintings of
Giorgio Morandi and Cy Twombly, Kim’s training as an architect is
essential to her process (and the crossover work of Le Corbusier is an
important influence). In each painting, Kim builds a visual world
through the give and take of personal marks, discovering novel
structures to scaffold her past.
“Each stage of the process is like putting together a kit of parts
to tell a story,” Kim says. “My paintings are a visual
autobiography.”
View the exhibition
[https://modernisminc.com/exhibitions/Sheldon_GREENBERG--Interlaced_Viewings/]
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28/06/2024 Last update