• Overview
    View works. The Great Escape, oil on canvas, 40 x 30 cm
    The Great Escape, oil on canvas, 40 x 30 cm
    View works

    Minyoung Kim explores feelings of both anxiety and regret in dreamlike compositions, channeling personal experiences into her painting practice. Kim’s paintings appear both eerie and lighthearted, featuring recurring motifs of moons, flowers, knives, and anthropomorphic characters.

    Minyoung Kim (b. 1989) is a Korean artist based in London, UK, who works with different media, which includes drawing, painting, collage, video, and ceramics. Kim graduated from Sungshin Women's University with a bachelor's degree in painting in 2012 and a master's degree in printmaking in 2014. She also earned a second master's degree in painting at the Slade School of Fine Arts in 2021.
    She has had numerous solo shows and group exhibitions in different corners of the world. 
     

  • ARTIST STATEMENT

    Lately, I’ve been exploring a wider range of subjects in my work, with a stronger focus on composition and colour. When it comes to imagery, I find inspiration in all sorts of places - from social media, film, and magazines to poetry and dreams. Sometimes I’ll come across a strange visual combination that doesn’t logically make sense, but feels emotionally precise. Most of all, I’m drawn to the everyday, ordinary objects or fleeting moments that might go unnoticed. I like transforming those into something slightly surreal, as if they’ve passed through memory or a dream. I want the paintings to feel both familiar and off-kilter, like they’re holding something quietly emotional underneath the surface.
     
    My influences come from everywhere: film stills, poetry, fragments from social media, dreams, and the quiet drift of my subconscious. I’m drawn to visual pairings that don’t quite make sense logically but land with a very specific emotional clarity. I like it when ordinary things start to feel slightly surreal, as if caught in that suspended moment just before or after something unknown. Certain symbols return to me again and again: fish, snakes, flowers, eggs, mirrors, the moon. They each hold different meanings depending on the moment. A flower might bloom or wither. A fish might comfort or unsettle. Mirrors fascinate me; they distort, they reveal, they blur the line between what’s real and what’s imagined. And the moon, it’s always there, a quiet, rhythmic force, tied to cycles, femininity, and time.
     
    I hope my work encourages people to slow down. I don’t build clear stories or linear narratives; I want to leave room for uncertainty, for intimacy, for emotional resonance. My paintings feel to me like small personal myths; they unfold gently, just beneath the surface, in that soft space between clarity and mystery.
  • Works
  • Biography
    View works. Minyoung Kim
    View works

     

     

    EDUCATION

     

    2021   

    MFA Painting (Distinction), Slade School of Fine Art
     
    2014
    MFA Printmaking, Sungshin Women's University
     
    2012
    BA Painting, Sungshin Women's University
     

     

    SOLO EXHIBITIONS 

     

    2023

    • ECCHOING GREEN, Dohing Art at KIAF,  Seoul, Korea 
    • MISCHIEVOUS DREAMER, Taymour Grahne Projects, London, UK

     

    2021

    • Night Fever, Taymour Grahne Projects, London, UK
    • MOON GARDE, Aoutgallery, Beirut, Lebanon

     

    2018

    • THE NIGHT WAS YOUNG, Selected Artist in Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture, Place Mak, Laser, Seoul

     

    2016

    • THE WRECKED SPACESHIP, Selected Artist in Beginners Project 2016, Seoul Art Space Seogyo, Seoul
    • THE FLOATING UTOPIA, Selected Artist in Doll Gallery 2016, Doll Gallery, Seoul

     

    2014

    • SELECTED ARTIST IN BELT 2014, Selected Artist in BELT 2014, Lee Hwaik Gallery, Seoul

     

     

    GROUP EXHIBITION

     

    2024        

    • 'Ouverture, A I'inconnu, Palm Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan
    • 'Inner Voyage Out', OTI Gallery, Hong Kong

     

    2023  

    • 'Acts of Will', Galerie Nicolas Robert, Toronto, Canada
    • 'Moons', Enari Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
    • 'Through My Window', JPS Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
    • Half Gallery, New York, USA
    • 'Beach Show' Nino Mier Gallery, New York, USA
    • 'Secret Gardens', Wilder Gallery, London, UK
    • ‘Room With A View’, Hashimoto Contemporary, New York, USA
    • 'Level Unlocked', Andrea Festa, Rome, Italy
    • 'Hopecoming', Gallery2, Tel Aviv, Israel

     

    2022  

    • 'Landscape', Taymour Grahne Projects, London, UK
    • 'Landscape', Woaw Gallery, Hong Kong
    • Contemporary Art Now with Aoutgallery, Ibiza, Spain
    • 'Intimacy', Taymour Grahne Projects, London, UK
    • 'Colour, Culure, Feelings', Ojiri Gallery, UK
    • 'Assemble', V.O Curations, London, UK
    • 'Skin of Your Teeth', Crypt gallery, London, UK
    • 'Gentle Distraction', Aoutgallery, Beirut, Lebanon

     

    2021

    • 'Nine Lives', Fortnight Institute, New York, USA
    • 'Strange Fairy Tales', Artime Art Centre, Kunming, China
    • 'Green : Save the avandoned animals', National Taiwan Arts Education Centre, Taipei, Taiwan
    • 'London Grads Now. 21', Saatchi Gallery, London, UK

     

    2020

    • ‘Slade Runner’, ASC gallery, London, UK

     

    2018

    • ‘Seamless’, Space Can, Seoul

     

    2016

    • ‘New Drawing Project’, Yanju City Chang Uc Chin Museum of Art, Gyeonggi-Do

     

    2015

    • ‘Breathing House Project 2’, Thinking, Kimi Art Gallery, Seoul 2014
    • ‘50th anniversary of Sungshin Women’s University, Ara Art Center, Seoul
    • Origin of reproduction age, Fine Gallery Artshow Busan, Bexco, Busan
    • Cube – independent, Artist Cube, Seoul ART EDITION HONG KONG

     

    2014

    • Harbour city & Marco Polo Hotel, Hong Kong
    • YOU! WHO?, Jean Gallery, Seoul

     

    2013

    • The Ugly Duckling, Art Soop Gallery, Busan
    • The 31th Sungshin Prints, Si:jac Gallery, Seoul
    • ASYAAF, Moonhwa Station, Seoul284, Seoul
    • ASYAAF, 30 Artists Selection of Artshare Collaboration
    • Korean Contemporary Prints Exhibition, Seoul Museum of Kyung-Hee-Geung Palace Annex, Seoul

     

     

    AWARDS & RESIDENCY

     

    2021

    Slade Print Fair Scholarship prize

     

    2020

    Terence Cuneo Awards

    Max Werner Drawing Prize (nomination)

     

    2018

    Residency 2018 Marymod House with Can Foundation, Seoul.

     

     

    Publications

     

    2022

    ArtMaze Magazine Issue 26 - Artist Interview

     

    2021

    ArtMaze Magazine Issue 22
    ArtMaze Magazine Issue 23

     

     

    COLLECTIONS

     

    Beth DeWoody
    MACAL Museum
    X Museum
    PeteScantland

  • Exhibitions
  • Press
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