DIRECTORY 2025

YeeJae Kim | Sculpture, Installation

Yeejae Kim is an artist whose interdisciplinary work spans performance, sculpture, video, and installation, using vulnerability to challenge the expectations and ideals imposed by beauty standards. Born and raised in Seoul, South Korea, she draws from her cultural background and personal experiences to engage with societal norms. Her projects have been showcased at venues including The Jewish Museum, Fredric Snitzer Gallery, theBLANC Gallery, and Wallach Gallery, among others. Kim earned her BA from the University of California, Davis, a Post-Baccalaureate from Brandeis University, and an MFA from Columbia University. She is currently based in Long Island City, NY.

In her work, she explores the absurdities of beauty standards through her obsessions and perceived inadequacies, creating performances, sculptures, and installations that reveal the violence embedded in aesthetic molds, beauty myths, and consumer rituals.
Her recent work, Happy Factory, focuses on mass-producing the face of a character from a Korean exfoliating mitt—a symbol of her “ideal” beauty and fixation. The repeated, imperfect faces suggest an endless, unattainable quest for perfection, creating hierarchies and cycles of self-destruction within beauty culture. Through kinetic elements, Kim immerses viewers in visceral experiences that echo labor, manufacturing, and the critical gaze. Faces oscillate, inflate, and spin, producing sounds that blur laughter and crying—a space where playfulness and discomfort intersect.

www.yeejaekim.com
@mynameisnot_yee