Sensorium

JONGMIN "JOY" KIM SOLO SHOW

Opening Reception Fri. January 19, 6-10pm

Space776, Brooklyn

Space 776 is pleased to announce Jongmin "Joy" Kim's fist solo show in New York titled Sensorium, curated by Dante Bellardita-Fernandez. The show traces the work of the artist from his arrival in the United States three years ago to his most recent work. Early during his sojourn stateside, Joy executed pieces following the Western tradition of analytic cubism with clear stylistic allusions to Matisse and late Picasso. Demonstrative of his growth as an artist, Joy's work has become jarringly impressionistic with aesthetic debts to Bacon and Basquiat. 

The show's title, Sensorium, is derived from an academic term for the human senses when they are discussed as a holistic system in regards to how they function to interpret one's environment. The many portraits and corporal renderings in Joy's work simultaneously explore his own sensorium while engaging that of the audience. Specifically, with works such as NYPD and White, Black, and Yellow, the artist is responding to the perhaps overwhelming effect the twenty-four hour news cycle has had on our senses as of late. Emigrating during one of the most sociopolitically turbulent times in recent history for the United States, Joy's art reflects the miasma of fanaticism that has become commonplace across both traditional and new media. For the artist, the language barrier and disparate social constructs of the US confronts the sense in a less systemic or linear manner than to a local. 

While major institutions in New York have explored topics such as Chinese Culture in the West and the spectrum of American artists, the unicity of Joy's oeuvre lies its ostensible nativete. While someone who follows the news avidly may be able to read into the symbolism and illusory forms in paintings, the surface content is striking enough to cause reflection on the gravity of American society and media.

Sensorium will have its opening reception Friday, January 19th from 6:00 to 10:00 pm at the gallery's Brooklyn brick-and-mortar at 229 Central Avenue, refreshments will be served.