Sodam Kim: Between Drawings and Paintings
Sodam Kim: Between Drawings and Paintings
February 1 – 10, 2020
Galerie Pici Seoul, Seoul, Korea
Korean artist Sodam Kim’s new series takes a powerful approach to exploring regret, fear, and anxiety through both on paper and canvas. This is Sodam’s debut exhibition with the gallery. She continues with her enlarged images centered on the frame, full of life, detail, and includes a range of colors. She takes a complex look into the inside of female emotions while simultaneously using gentle forms.
“My work is based on drawing for long periods at a time. It’s an important factor that enables various planar experiments.”
– Artist Note, Sodam Kim
Sodam Kim’s recognizable references of anatomical images exemplifies her episodes of anxiety and fear, projected outward. The suggestive use of an opening in the center of the flower brings the viewer inside her emotions and gives insight into her trauma.
Inside 03, 2019. Collage and mixed Media on Paper. 13.77 x 9.64 in / 35 x 24.5 cm © Sodam Kim
Sodam Kim
Inside 03, 2019.
Collage and mixed Media on Paper.
13.77 x 9.64 in / 35 x 24.5 cm
Referencing anatomical shapes within flowers, Kim joins the two feminine subjects to address her personal anxieties, fears, and trauma. By overtly placing these subjects in the center, the viewer is confronted by Kim’s ongoing difficulties with overcoming internal struggles by turning them outward.
Kim combines various forms from organs of the body to create new and unfamiliar forms. These become subjects of her work, collaging shapes by cutting and pasting different images from the body. Her method of working merges her own emotions with the small things in the world around her. She recreates a world that is both strange and beautiful.
Inside 01, 2019. Collage and mixed Media on Paper. 13.77 x 9.64 in / 35 x 24.5 cm © Sodam Kim
Sodam Kim
Inside 01, 2019.
Collage and mixed Media on Paper.
13.77 x 9.64 in / 35 x 24.5 cm
Bold colors dominate works such as Inside and Untitled (Canna) with vibrant pinks, reds, and yellows. There’s a pulsating energy to her choice in colors, covering the surface from edge to edge. She utilizes the female perspective to tap into her emotions, explore uncertainty within herself.
Untitled (Canna) 08, 2019. Oil, Oil Pastel on Canvas, 18.11 x 21.25 / 46 x 54 cm © Sodam Kim
Sodam Kim
Untitled (Canna) 08, 2019
Oil, oil pastel on canvas.
18.11 x 21.25 in / 46 x 54 cm
Kim’s common motif of floral closeups can be suggestive and full of emotions. She uses the close perspective to invite the viewer into her emotional heaviness, but emphasizes the floral subject as a way of negating any obvious negativity.
Untitled (Canna) 09, 2019. Oil, Oil Pastel on Canvas, 18.11 x 21.25 / 46 x 54 cm © Sodam Kim
“My work is an inner landscape made up of my subjective and personal taste. My work depends a lot on the ‘unconscious’. Concepts such as the unconscious and dreams are greatly aided by my imagination to create the work.”
– Artist Note, Sodam Kim
“My method of painting uses a narrative context created through fragmented images. Relying on the combination and interrelationship of images, the narrative expands endlessly within a series of juxtaposed structures.”
– Sodam Kim
Installation view, Untitled, 2019 – 2020. Pastel on paper, 8.26 x 11.41 / 21 x 29 cm © Sodam Kim
After receiving her BFA in Seoul, she moved to Frankfurt, Germany and began her artistic career. Kim is exhibiting her work internationally; in France, Germany, and Korea. She currently lives and works in Seoul and has held solo exhibitions at Posco Art Museum, Seoul and Soma Drawing Center, Seoul. She also was chosen for a prestigious artist residency in 2004, Goyang Residency run by National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea; in 2006 at Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France.