The Seasons

Bumin Kim

 

OCTOBER 2 – NOVEMBER 23, 2024

OPENING: WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2024, 6-8 PM

ARTIST TALK AT 7:30 PM

 

@SWPK Gallery

THE SYLVIA WALD & PO KIM ART FOUNDATION

417 LAFAYETTE STREET, 2ND FLOOR, NYC

 

Bumin Kim, Landscape 55, 2024, Thread and Acrylic on Wood Panel, 42 x 42 in. (107 x 107 cm)

 

SWPK Gallery is pleased to announce a solo exhibition, The Seasons, exhibiting works by Korean artist Bumin Kim (b. 1982). The exhibition will take place from October 2 to November 23, 2024 at the SWPK gallery. An opening reception with the artist will take place at 6:00 PM on Wednesday, October 2.

 

Bumin Kim explores the limits of her materials, employing thread and string in order to challenge the definition of painting. Through the act of stitching and weaving, Kim transforms two-dimensional surfaces into three-dimensional immersive experiences. Her works offer a recontextualization of thread and string, which emphasizes the energy and grace of drawing and painting.

 

The Seasons is the result of Kim's infatuation with nature's stubborn inconstancy. Each piece explores some of the profound transformations that our environment undergoes as well as the emotional depths which these changes unearth. Kim’s translation of seasonal changes also seeks to archive past experiences. The fluid changes in the weight of her lines, the subtle gradation of hues and the fluidity of her thread—especially prevalent in her Landscape series—invoke the transience of these memories, including the loss and potential recreation contained within. Also prevalent in these pieces is the dichotomy between light and dark, a juxtaposition which seeks to bring the capricious, outside world in communication with the internal.

 

 

Bumin Kim, Landscape 55 (detail), 2024, Thread and Acrylic on Wood Panel, 42 x 42 in. (107 x 107 cm)

 

Central to these works also is an emotional aporia. The workings of her thread embody a mood that is calm yet activated, restrained yet challenging, and simple yet complex. These dualities offer an unexpected sense of realism, as they mirror the frequent coexistence of seemingly opposed forces which exists both in the natural and our own internal worlds. Ultimately, The Seasons, in its exploration of temporality, paradoxically explores the timelessness of life’s journey, the cycles that connect us all, and the beauty found in the ever-shifting blow of existence. Kim, thus, invites her viewers to engage personally with the exhibition and discover their own reflections in the evocative threads which constitute her pieces. 

 

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Bumin Kim was born in South Korea and is currently based in Texas. She received her MFA in Drawing and Painting from the University of North Texas in 2015 and has since seen her work exhibited across the country and featured in various national publications. 

 

ABOUT SWPK GALLERY

SWPK Gallery — The Sylvia Wald & Po Kim Art Foundation — is a non-profit organization committed to promoting East-West cultural exchange through the arts by sponsoring and hosting art exhibitions of national and international artists. For more information, visit: swpk.org

 

The Seasons is produced in collaboration with the Donghwa Cultural Foundation.

 

 

SWPK Gallery

417 Lafayette Street, 2nd Floor

New York, NY 10003

Phone: 212.598.1155