East Village, New York
Minjung Kim
The Room
OkoBeginning January 23rd, Oko is pleased to present the exhibition Minjung Kim: The Room, the artist's first solo presentation in New York in over a decade. Appearing at first glance to be monochromes, the paintings of Minjung Kim (b. 1962, in Gwangju, Republic of Korea) gradually reveal themselves as intricately accrued surfaces. Early, intensive study of East Asian calligraphy endowed Minjung with a vision of our world as not merely a collection of physical objects, but as an infinite universe of processes. Her training also taught Minjung to communicate through an extremely controlled deployment of her brush, which "channels" energy and directs it onto paper. The artist painstakingly mounts up the rice paper support of her paintings, either by overlaying burnt-edged sheets or by laying down a range of brushstrokes to achieve an overall gradation of sumi ink. The result is far removed from the legible signs of calligraphy or the customary figuration of traditional ink painting; instead, Minjung’s art revels in radical abstraction. Minjung Kim: The Room will remain on view at Oko through March 1st. While she received formal training in the art of calligraphy and its principles of direct action and uninterrupted gesture, it was through Minjung’s studies at the Brera Academy in Milan that she became increasingly fascinated with the particular application of these techniques in the hands of such Western artists as Franz Kline and Paul Klee. This multi-faceted lens is fundamental to her practice and the various tensions it embodies. The darkly saturated Story paintings (2009 and 2011) and The Room (2008) evidence the artist’s precision and mastery, but also introduce an element of chance. Mountain (2008) employs the continuous brushstrokes of ink characteristic to calligraphy – in which certain angles of the brush and degrees of pressure produce varying tones of black and grey – to compose an abstracted landscape. Minjung Kim: The Room is the last in a series of three shows at Oko that featured the work of emerging women artists from discrete disciplines, each with her own distinct aesthetic vision. Oko is located on 220 E 10th Street, New York, NY. It is open to the public Thursday through Saturday, from 12–6PM and by appointment. For press inquiries please contact Andrea Schwan: info@andreaschwan.com +1 917 371 5023 For all other inquiries please contact Tamar Margalit: tamar@okooko.org +1 212 460 5321