About
Kent Kim 김형섭
He paints in black and white, with silver and gold acrylic. Hangul, Chinese characters and the Roman alphabet are written into one another until the line no longer belongs to any single script.
Installation view, D:STA Gallery, Garosu-gil, Seoul, 2023
He was sixteen when his family left Seoul for New Jersey in 1989. He began painting with Hangul almost at once. The three scripts in the work are not a design decision; they are the condition of having grown up between two places, set down in one gesture.
In 1990 and again in 1991 he was selected to represent the State of New Jersey, and his work was shown at the Morris Museum in Morristown. He exhibited in New York in 1992.
He has been painting in front of an audience since long before 133 Places. In February 2016 he painted live at Palais de Seoul, beside Gyeongbokgung Palace, with the audience joining in. It was a benefit for Himango, the foundation that plants mango trees in South Sudan.
He studied economics at Harvard University and then spent two decades as an author, broadcaster and composer, publishing twenty-three books and writing a daily illustrated column for the Dong-A Ilbo. He returned to painting full time in 2023, held two solo exhibitions in Seoul that year, and began 133 Places.
Selected biography
- 1989Emigrates from Seoul to New Jersey at sixteen. Begins painting with Hangul.
- 1990Selected to represent the State of New Jersey; exhibited at the Morris Museum.
- 1991Selected to represent the State of New Jersey for a second consecutive year.
- 1992Exhibition, New York.
- 1990sBuilds the Haenah-Kent Gallery in SoHo, New York, together with his mother, while still in high school.
- 1998Organises the Anthony Quinn exhibition at the Seoul Arts Center.
- 1999Re-Family group exhibition, Seoul Arts Center.
- 2000Draws Harvard Man, a year-long cartoon series for the Dong-A Ilbo.
- 2016Kent Kim Nude Painting Performance for Himango — a live painting performance at Palais de Seoul, beside Gyeongbokgung Palace, in aid of Himango — the foundation founded by the fashion designer Lee Kwang-hee (이광희) to plant mango trees in South Sudan; its name joins the Korean word for hope, huimang, to the fruit. Coca-Cola supported the event, and the audience painted alongside him. Film
- 2022Organises the twentieth-anniversary retrospective of Kang-Ja Lee.
- 2023Two solo exhibitions, Seoul — Daechi-dong, and D:STA Gallery, Garosu-gil.
- 2023–24One Hundred and Thirty-Three Places — 133 paintings made on location across the Republic of Korea, and 133 films of them being made.
Solo exhibitions
- 2023D:STA Gallery, Garosu-gil, Seoul
- 2023Daechi-dong, Seoul
Selected group exhibitions
- 1999Seoul Arts Center, Seoul
- 1992New York, NY
- 1991Morris Museum, Morristown, NJ — New Jersey state representative
- 1990Morris Museum, Morristown, NJ — New Jersey state representative
Curatorial
- 2022Kang-Ja Lee: Twentieth Anniversary Retrospective, Seoul
- 1998Anthony Quinn exhibition, Seoul Arts Center — organiser
The gallery
His mother, Kang-Ja Lee, opened the Haenah-Kent Gallery at 568 Broadway in SoHo in 1990, with a parallel space in Gwanhun-dong, Seoul. He was in high school, and built it with her.
Nam June Paik was one of the artists who came through his mother's gallery. They met when Kent was in his teens.
Contact
Enquiries from galleries, curators and cultural institutions are welcome.