10 Questions with Hee Sook Kim

Hee Sook Kim is an accomplished visual artist who has gained recognition for her work across the world. Kim won prizes including the Coverley-Smith Prize of the Woodmere Art Museum (Philadelphia, PA), the Fleisher Art Memorial Wind Challenge Award (Philadelphia, PA), Special Prize Arte Laguna (Venice, Italy), Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant (New York, NY), Leeway Foundation Grant (Philadelphia, PA), State Foundation of Culture and Arts Acquisition Award (Hilo, Hawaii), Honorary Mention in Encyclopedia of Living Artists, and a Merit Award from the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts (State College, PA).

Her Solo Exhibitions include Philadelphia International Airport (Philadelphia, PA), Youngeun Museum of Contemporary Art (Gwangju, South Korea), Phillips Museum of Art (Lancaster, PA), Center for Contemporary Printmaking (Norwalk, CT), Youngeun Museum of Contemporary Art (Gwangju, South Korea), Art Museum of the University of New Mexico (Albuquerque, NM), Marwick-Boyd Fine Arts Center (Clarion, PA), Abington Art Center (Philadelphia, PA), Indianapolis Art Center (Indianapolis, IN), Lincoln Center (Colorado Springs, CO), and North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences (Raleigh, NC), Galerie Böhner (Mannheim, Germany), Causey Contemporary (New York, NY), Artside Gallery (Seoul, Korea), Abbei Gallery (Cologne, Germany), Kansas City Artists Coalition (Kansas City), Artsforum Gallery (New York, NY), Kwanhoon Art Center (Seoul, South Korea), and Allens Lane Art Center (Philadelphia, PA). Her work has appeared as part of group exhibitions at Woodmere Art Museum (Philadelphia, PA), Osaka City Museum (Osaka, Japan), the Fukuoka Prefectural Museum (Fukuoka, Japan), Bronx Museum (Bronx, NY), the Drawing Center (New York, NY), Asian American Art Center (New York, NY), Bronx River Art Center (Bronx, NY), and the Queens Museum (Queens, New York), Korean Cultural Center (Washington DC). Additionally, her work has been shown at the National Museum of Modern Art (Seoul, South Korea), Seoul Art Cosmos Center (Seoul, South Korea), Taipei City Museum of Art (Taipei, Taiwan), and Le Centre d'Estudis d'Art Contemporari (Barcelona, Spain).

She has been an artist-in-residence at Espronceda Center of Art and Culture (Barcelona, Spain), Venezia Fallani (Venice, Italy), Santa Fe Art Institute (Santa Fe, NM), Youngeun Museum (Gwangju, South Korea), Ascona Centro Incontri Umani (Ascona, Switzerland), Collaborative Press (Los Angeles, CA), Helene Wurlitzer Foundation (Taos, New Mexico), Brandywine Workshop (Philadelphia, PA), Villa Montalvo (Saratoga, California), Millay Colony (Millay, New York) and full fellowship award winner at the Vermont Studio Center (Johnson, Vermont).

Kim's pieces are in many collections throughout the United States, Korea, Japan, China, and Europe, and numerous reviews have been published nationally and internationally, including the Philadelphia Inquirer. Currently, she is a Professor in the Fine Arts Department at Haverford College, Pennsylvania.

www.heesookkim.com | @hee_sook_kim

INTERVIEW

First of all, introduce yourself to our readers. Who are you, and how did you develop into the artist you are today?

I was born in South Korea and immigrated to the USA. I live and work in Philadelphia, USA. Currently, I am a Professor at Haverford College, PA. Having lived in two different cultures (East and West) for the same periods influenced my artwork. I tend to intertwine these experiences into visual conversations. When I saw a grand exhibition of Paul Gauguin in my high school years, I wanted to be an artist. Gauguin's unique artistic style had an unforgettable impact on me.

You are originally from Korea, but you have been living in the USA for several years now, and you are also currently a Professor in the Fine Arts Department at Haverford College, Pennsylvania. How much did moving to the US help you develop your practice?

I always wanted to leave Korea due to the social system that has diminished women's rights, even in the family. I didn't think I could become a successful artist as a woman. When I planned to study in the USA, I knew I didn't want to go back. My goal was to be a college professor. I guess it worked out well after lots of hardships. However, I faced different issues like racism in this country along with sexism as well. I guess that moving close to where active art scenes are helped. After years living away from Korea, I somehow enlightened myself to understand its culture better. 

On the contrary, how much of your Korean heritage can we find in your work? Do you have any theme that you derived from Korean culture? Or is there any Korean artist you particularly look up to? 

My artistic style must be a hybrid of Asian and Western styles. I was influenced by old Korean painting (water-based) and by Western art style (oil paintings and printmaking); the recent series are "Nirvana" and "Paradise Between." I used the spiritual aspect of art using medicinal plants, Korean longevity landscapes, and folk art from the Joseon Period or before. Currently, some social and political issues, such as racism in particular by the White Supremacist groups that emerged from the Presidential election in 2016, forced me to create a series of American flags; I started creating "My (own) American flags" using diverse materials like gemstones, silk flowers, polished nails, gem fabrics, and tree branches, showing off the femininity germinated from old feminism against the male-dominated social structures and embracing the femaleness of my strength, not a weakness. Korean old painters are all my influences. When I was a high school kid, my teacher told me about Cezanne a lot. Last year, I visited Sainte. Victoire Mountain at Aix-en-Provence for the first time in my life ever since. Now, I am making a hybrid series of them.

Speaking of your work, what are the main themes behind your paintings? What messages would you like to convey? 

My main concern is healing and spirituality. When I faced 9/11 in New York, I wanted to heal myself and others from the trauma of that time. A year after residency in Taos, New Mexico, I searched for unknown plants in the prairies and created a series of works that influenced "Medicinal Garden" later. Recently, "Nirvana" is another way of healing based on Buddhism to find an ideal place for all to embrace muti-cultural society when we suffer from racism after sexism. The "My American Flag" series expresses my statement about White Supremacy, which declares their patriotism using American Flags since the 2016 Presidential election.

You have been working and honing your craft for several years now. How did your work evolve over the years? Did you have any major change throughout your career, or do you find that your work has naturally evolved around the same themes and inspirations?

When I came to the USA, I was an emerging artist and kept my career continuously. I guess having a baby challenged me personally on how to manage work, and raising a baby was a challenge. Social turmoil like 9/11, gun issues, racism. And feminist issues such as abortion affected my work. 

Your current paintings are visually very delicate and soft. How do you choose your subjects? And what is your creative process like? 

I use multiple layers as I make prints with multiple plates. When you look at the surface, there are many built-up surfaces underneath. Using mediums makes the brush strokes softer and translucent. It is hard to see the gemstones in digital images, but shimmering pieces are all over the final layers, changing with lights. I print patterns, usually Asian patterns from folk objects, on the surface to create a see-through lace as if you look at the scene or objects through it. When I had a solo show at the Espronceda Center, Savina made a brilliant display by using spotlights in the dark space so that people could see the work shimmering even better, like underwater or a dream.

You use soft colors, often recurring in several of your paintings. Do these colors have any specific meaning to you? And how do you choose them? 

I use colors from Korean folk paintings a lot, and they come back in many different pieces. Those colors are from the natural pigments of the old days, which look very organic.

You have a long and impressive career, with several exhibitions, prizes, and international features. What is your favorite memory as an artist so far? 

I love artist residences in different countries or places, which influenced me a lot. Espronceda in Barcelona was one of them because I could visit Barcelona for the first time. I want to keep visiting other residences continuously. In 2021, in the middle of the COVID pandemic, I was invited to create a site-specific monumental piece at the Philadelphia International Airport. I can never forget how I worked wearing a mask with my assistants in the airport workshop for a week, gluing gemstones on the surface. 

And what do you think of the art market? How has it changed over the past few years, in your opinion? And what can we do to make it a more inclusive place? 

I think the art market is very narrowed into a few groups of artists: emerging and famous or the dead. When I was a young artist, I didn't even imagine selling my work to survive. The speculative market is ruining emerging artists. Art investment ETFs tell you something else. I make artwork, not for sales but for making good work. If it sells, that is good, too, but not the other way around.

Lastly, what is one piece of advice you would give to an emerging artist? 

It is a better time for emerging artists because of digital venues where they can sell their work for a living. I guess I have been lucky because I don't have to think about sales all the time. If you keep making art, you will eventually get recognized.

Artist’s Talk

Al-Tiba9 Interviews is a promotional platform for artists to articulate their vision and engage them with our diverse readership through a published art dialogue. The artists are interviewed by Mohamed Benhadj, the founder & curator of Al-Tiba9, to highlight their artistic careers and introduce them to the international contemporary art scene across our vast network of museums, galleries, art professionals, art dealers, collectors, and art lovers across the globe.