Minjung Kim

Minjung Kim s abstract works the result of patient manipulation of traditional Korean calligraphy ink and hand-dyed hanji (mulberry) paper have garnered her global acclaim.

As alluded to in the book s title, Kim employs a limited range of mediums to produce an extraordinary variety of abstract works in different color schemes, compositions, and scales.

The artist s use of traditional Korean materials echoes her early education in traditional arts at Hongik University in Seoul, while her abstract compositions, and painstaking process of cutting, burning, and layering the paper coalesced into a practice later, while she was studying at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan.

Kim works in series multiple works created in similar styles, all bearing the same title. There may be two or more than ten, and they may have been created in the same year or a decade apart. Selections from more than 50 series are included here. The book is organized by series rather than chronologically, illustrating how different works influence and grow out of one another, and how the artist revisits bodies of work after years have passed.

Kim s abstract forms recall clouds, flora, and mountains evoking themes of nature, spirituality, creation, and time. The book s stunning, spare design gives her work the primary focus while echoing its simplicity and materiality. Image banks are punctuated with texts on different paper stocks essays by curator Sam Bardaouil and scholar Jun Hu, and a conversation between Minjung Kim and critic Andrew Russeth conducted for this book.

Minjung Kim is represented by Gallery Hyundai (New York, Seoul).