Sung Soo Kim: "Conversion of Language"

Aug 30th-Sept 5th, 2018

K&P Gallery  

Opening | Thursday Aug 30  6-8pm, Friday Aug 31st  5-7pm

Sung Soo KIM

Sung Soo Kim was born & grew up in Seoul, Republic of Korea.

When the country was politically chaotic under a dictatorship, he was raised by nannies without his parents being present. At an early age he had Autism Spectrum Disorder, which he had a difficult childhood.

At age at 24, he moved to Paris to study painting, the only thing he was passionate about.

He’d earn money by giving private lesson to fashion students from Asia & Europe, that gave him the chance to continue studying in Paris & New York. Which lead to working in fashion industries in NY.

He had many group & solo exhibitions and won special prize of many competitions with his early work “Transformation” series. With many private & public corrections in Korea, Japan, France and U.S.A.

In1996,  he had his solo & group shows with his first concept of ”Re-make up” series, which inspired concept of Marcel Duchamp & Jean Baudrillard.

In 2001, he curated video installation exhibition “Parallel Worlds of Sensations”.

In 2011, he was diagnosed with kidney dysfunction that cause him to slow down and took sometime to finish his series.

Currently he is continually working on a  2nd project “Conversion of Language” series, which mostly inspired from Jacques Lacan and Sigmund Freud based “post –structuralism psychoanalysis”.

He currently resides in Chelsea NYC with his wife.

Artist Work Statement  / Sung Soo Kim/ 2018

Conversion of Language 

In my work, I bring my continuous struggle to life in a material form. Ever since I can remember, a cacophony of words and images in the conflict has plagued the forefront of my mind. I amplify the fissure between these oppositional forces in my art in order to expose it. 

There is a powerful juxtaposition between the latent emotional imagery in my subconscious and my ability to finitely express this in the conscious world. 

I visually reconcile the power of this friction in the form of painting.

This collection is an extended anthology of how I’ve dealt with this challenge and it’s manifestation in each phase of my work.

Also, I am making a visible of the force of the dissonance between the existing language and the constrained unconsciousness.