GALLERY KABINETT

CV

2022

Normal Life, Unit London

2021

The Other Side of My Life, Solo Exhibition,

Everyday Mooonday Gallery

2020

Normal life, 갤러리 까비넷

2019

Normal life, 3th Printbakery Art Super Market

Group exhibition, Live drawing performance

with Seokcheol Yun at. D museum

2018

2th Printbakery Art Super Market Group exhibition

2017

Normal Life, Solo Exhibition, Everyday

Mooonday Gallery "일상그림" 출판:도서출판 1984

People, Solo Exhibition

2016

Normal life, veryday mooonday gallery

2015

Childhood skateboard Exhibition

Color on canvas exhibition, Mimesis art museum

희한한 시대展 with 옥상달빛

The present AXOO Group exhibition

2014

Heesookim sketch exhibition, Opium studio

Biography/Artist Statement

Born in 1984 in Seoul, Heesoo Kim studied design in advertising and marketing. He worked as photographer and at age 29, he transformed as a painter. In the beginning, Kim was a modern photographer presenting his painting through SNS. Currently, he is an artist showing at various solo and group exhibitions around the title ‘Normal Life’. He shares his daily life and emotions through his work with the viewers. The exhibition, ‘The Other Side of My Mind’ dives in deeper yet delicately into the psyche of depression in his daily life. Kim works between public art and fine art with a focus on the mundane events and emotions in his own style.

Heesoo Kim defines as an “expression of the mundane”, Normal Life is an accumulation of everyday observations. Having struggled with his own insecurities, Kim’s portraits act as a means to regain agency as the artist chooses to paint the stories of those around him, recording the feelings and emotions that connect us all. These portraits do not attach themselves to any specific sense of personhood; each figure, wiped clean of idiosyncrasies, could be anyone. Kim therefore encourages his viewers to project themselves onto his portraits, revelling in the conceivable meanings of our universal experience and presenting an ordinary that has the potential to be extraordinary.

Before he began to paint, Kim trained as a photographer. When he decided to move from photography to painting, he spent much of his time practicing alone. As an avid notetaker, the artist has long saved short snippets of writing that record his ordinary moments, keeping these collections in sketchbooks and journals. Kim’s paintings often unfold from the musings that float across the pages of his journals. Unexpected events will occur without exception. A singular obsession has narrowed the mind’s eye. These scribbled moments of self-reflection become the building blocks of Kim’s portraits in which unknown figures are immobilised and held as though through the lens of a camera. They often grasp everyday yet disquietingly incongruous items. With one eye sometimes closed tight and with hands sometimes pressed to their ears, these sitters seem to recall and then wince from the onset of an unwelcome thought. Insignificant things often hurt our emotions: another idea that creeps its way onto the pages of Kim’s journal.

Having long felt compelled towards portraiture, Kim has always wanted to paint people and visualise their everyday stories. By never attaching titles to his artworks, he keeps them as open as possible, liberating each piece from fixed interpretation: “I believe that it is in the artist's karma to fill what is void, to make whole what is incomplete”. Ultimately, in their unabashed recognition of banality, Kim’s portraits encourage us to look both outwardly and inwardly, to search for the intrinsic value in our universal experience.

김희수 kimheesoo

김희수 KimHeesoo

CV

2022

Normal Life, Unit London

2021

The Other Side of My Life, Solo Exhibition, Everyday Mooonday Gallery

2020

Normal life, 갤러리 까비넷

2019

Normal life, 3th Printbakery Art Super Market Group exhibition,

Live drawing performance with Seokcheol Yun at. D museum

2018

2th Printbakery Art Super Market Group exhibition

2017

Normal Life, Solo Exhibition, Everyday Mooonday Gallery

"일상그림" 출판 : 도서출판 1984

People, Solo Exhibition

2016

Normal life , Everydaymooonday gallery

2015

Childhood skateboard Exhibition

Color on canvas exhibition, Mimesis art museum

희한한 시대展 with 옥상달빛

The present AXOO Group exhibition

2014

Heesookim sketch exhibition, Opium studio

Biography/Artist Statement

1984년 서울에서 태어났다. 광고 마케팅 디자인을 전공하였고, 사진작가로 29세부터 커리어를 시작하였는데 이후에 화가로 전환하였다. 초기에는 현대적인 사진작가로서 회화 작품을 SNS에 선보였다. 현재까지 다양한 개인 및 그룹 전시에서 작품을 선보였는데, 작품 제목은 <Normal Life>이었다. 일상과 감정을 작품을 통해 관객과 공유한다. <The Other Side of My Mind>이라는 전시에서 더 깊이, 그러나 조심스럽게 일상에서 느끼는 우울감을 다루었다. 공공미술과 순수미술사이에서 활동하며, 일상에서의 사건과 감정을 자신만의 방법으로 표현하도록 집중했다. ‘일상에 대한 표현’으로 정의하며 <Normal Life>은 일상에서 관찰한 것들을 모은 것이다. 나의 불안한 감정 때문에 고군분투하며, 초상화는 주변 사람들의 이야기를 그려 주체성을 되찾는 수단으로 작용하였는데, 우리 모두가 공감할 수 있는 느낌과 감정을 기록하는것이었다. 이 초상화들은 특정 인물상으로 제한되지 않는다. 각각의 형상이 특정 성향 없이 어느 누구에게나 해당된다. 이처럼 관객이 초상화에 스스로를 비추어 보도록 하여 격려한다. 인간의 일반적인 경험의 상상할 수 있는 측면을 즐기며 하나의 일반적인 개념을 제시하고 그것이 특별해질 수 있음을 전달한다.

회화작업을 하기 전에는 사진작가로 훈련되었다. 사진에서 회화로 전환할 것을 결정하고는 홀로 연습하는 데에 시간을많이 할애했다. 메모 작성을 열정적으로 하기에 짧게 쓴 글들을 모아 일상을 기록했고 스케치북과 일기에 수집했다. 회화작품은 종종 일기를 통해 자유로운 사색으로 펼쳐진다. 예기치 않은 사건도 일어나기 마련이다. 한 집착이 마음의 시선을 가렸다. 대략적으로 스스로를 비춘 순간들은 초상화에서 기초가 되었는데 누구인지 알 수 없는 형상들이 움직일수 없고 카메라에 의해 고정되었다. 인물은 카메라 렌즈를 통해 일상적이지만 부적합한 것들을 담았다. 한쪽 눈이 굳게감겨있기도 하고 손이 때로는 귀를 막았으며, 이 앉아있는 자들은 마치 달갑지 않은 생각이 떠올랐을 때를 떠올리다가움찔하는 것 같다. 중요하지 않은 것도 때로는 우리의 감정을 상하게 하는데 이것이 일기에 작성될 다음 아이디어이다.

초상화 작가로서 즐기면서 사람들을 그리고 그들의 일상 스토리를 시각화하기 원했다. 작품제목을 절대로 짓지 않음을통해 가능한 열린 상태를 유지한다. 즉, 각 작품이 고정된 해석으로부터 자유롭다. “나는 공허한 것을 채우고 불완전한것을 온전하게 만드는 것이 예술가의 업이라고 믿는다.” 결국 평범함을 뻔뻔스럽게 인식하는 과정에서, 나의 초상화는관객을 외면 및 내면적으로 격려하며 사람들의 보편적인 경험에 내재된 가치를 찾고자 한다.

Born in 1984 in Seoul, Heesoo Kim studied design in advertising and marketing. He worked as a photographer and at age 29, he transformed as a painter. In the beginning, Kim was a modern photographer presenting his painting through SNS. Currently, he is an artist showing at various solo and group exhibitions around the title ‘Normal Life’. He shares his daily life and emotions through his work with the viewers. The exhibition, ‘The Other Side of My Mind’ dives in deeper yet delicately into the psyche of depression in his daily life. Kim works between public art and fine art with a focus on the mundane events and emotions in his own style.

Heesoo Kim defines as an “expression of the mundane”, Normal Life is an accumulation of everyday observations. Having struggled with his own insecurities, Kim’s portraits act as a means to regain agency as the artist chooses to paint the stories of those around him, recording the feelings and emotions that connect us all. These portraits do not attach themselves to any specific sense of personhood; each figure, wiped clean of idiosyncrasies, could be anyone. Kim therefore encourages his viewers to project themselves onto his portraits, revelling in the conceivable meanings of our universal experience and presenting an ordinary that has the potential to be extraordinary.

Before he began to paint, Kim trained as a photographer. When he decided to move from photography to painting, he spent much of his time practicing alone. As an avid notetaker, the artist has long saved short snippets of writing that record his ordinary moments, keeping these collections in sketchbooks and journals. Kim’s paintings often unfold from the musings that float across the pages of his journals. Unexpected events will occur without exception. A singular obsession has narrowed the mind’s eye. These scribbled moments of self-reflection become the building blocks of Kim’s portraits in which unknown figures are immobilised and held as though through the lens of a camera. They often grasp everyday yet disquietingly incongruous items. With one eye sometimes closed tight and with hands sometimes pressed to their ears, these sitters seem to recall and then wince from the onset of an unwelcome thought. Insignificant things often hurt our emotions: another idea that creeps its way onto the pages of Kim’s journal.

Having long felt compelled towards portraiture, Kim has always wanted to paint people and visualise their everyday stories. By never attaching titles to his artworks, he keeps them as open as possible, liberating each piece from fixed interpretation: “I believe that it is in the artist's karma to fill what is void, to make whole what is incomplete”. Ultimately, in their unabashed recognition of banality, Kim’s portraits encourage us to look both outwardly and inwardly, to search for the intrinsic value in our universal experience.

김희수 KimHeesoo