Studio Visit: Artist, Myungwon Kim
Myungwon Kim in her Los Angeles studio.
Myungwon Kim utilizes her training in Printmaking to create large-scale gestural works that are both arresting and thought provoking. With mylar as her preferred substrate, and using her own body as the application tool, she layers varied media to “memorialize” movement, time, space and memory into her paintings. We asked how got started.
What’s your art background?
My background comes from Printmaking. I studied at Maryland Institute College of Art, Tamarind Institute and Tyler School of Arts for Printmaking. My process of thinking and creating images are very similar to a printmaker rather than a painter. I became a professional printmaker at Gemini G.E.L after graduate school in 2010. After Gemini, I had a studio and started making work.
What drew you to printmaking specifically?
After studying and practicing printmaking techniques I became deeply infatuated with the labor-intensive process. In printmaking, one creates an image onto a matrix that can be transferred in ink to a sheet of paper. This process requires extensive training, skills, and knowledge of the materials. I started using my technical expertise in printmaking to create an image that seeks to memorialize the everyday movements of my body. I began experimenting with my hands and feet in my work after seeing Janine Antoni’s photograph, Loving Care (1993), in which she uses her hair to draw on a gallery floor. I was drawn to the interconnected ideas of using one’s body to create images, and capturing my behavior and raw state of mind in my work.
Walk us through your process; how do you begin? How do you decide when it is finished?
I begin my painting process by laying down mylar or paper on the ground. I usually stand on top of the surface and decide which base color I would like to start with. Then with different shades and coloration of pigments which I mix with different mediums and use my limbs to make the marks on the surface. I observe the interactions between the materials and then to create different visual results. It takes about a week to finish a piece, and composition between the marks is very important to me. I usually know when the work is done after reviewing the composition.
Are there themes or topics that you explore in your work, or any you plan to explore?
I started with an interest in the physicality of the artistic process, and an investigation of the phenomena of materials. Painting on a large sheets of mylar or paper on the ground allows me to freely use my hands and feet to create expressive impressions. I enjoyed the act of making an image with my body which led me to think more about my everyday movement and state of mind that navigates though my work. Recently, I started to investigate the value of how we react and explore our movements into space. I believe our emotions and behaviors are influenced by the places and times we are living in, and I see my paintings as evidentiary stories of one’ reality. I started a new series of works based on documenting my everyday movements like walking, standing, wiping, kicking, etcetera, and then including those acts into my image-making. The daily movements have introduced a new sense of time, place and memory into my paintings.
Who are some of your favorite artists, and why?
Cai Guo Qiang, Francis Bacon, Eva Hesse, Doris Salcedo, Agnes Martin and Richard Serra are some of my favorite artists. I’m very drawn into large scale works but also drawn to very emotionally raw expressive and subtle works.
Untitled 04, 2014; dry pigment, ink and acrylic paint on mylar
Art is very subjective. What do you hope people experience when seeing your work?
I would like the viewer to walk around the work and experience the shifting perspective that allows the light to reveal the marks, tints, shades, and layers of pigment across the surface. I hope the viewer creates their own narrative in the work.
– Christina Spearman