is ‘a house’ where Kim BoMin ’s studio is located. On the first floor of this house, there is a studio of artist’s mother who is also an oriental painter. is painted based on this space. With this painting included, the exhibition will showcase other works of ‘studio series’ persistently produced in the past several years.

In recent years, Kim BoMin has been actively creating works on the scene of Seoul. Places such as Jong-roh district with Mt. Inwang seen afar, the Cheonggye stream, and the surrounding of Gangseo where the artist resides are all depicted with line tape and traditional Oriental method. The paintings of North Village region including Samcheong-dong, Gye-dong and Wonseo-dong show the artist’s attempt of applying the form of antique map, while places along Han River such as Yeoui-do, Bam Island, and Yul-do are painted through an aerial view. Kim BoMin has been earnestly discovering and developing her own style and appropriate methodology for painting the scene of Seoul. The ‘studio series’ display the place where all these works were created. In the early days, when was shown to numerous promoters and critics, the artist’s journey ahead was predicted and anticipated since then. The ‘studio series’ in this exhibition shows the process in condensation of how the work has been transformed and developed until the present.

 

Some of the recent exhibitions revive artist’s studio and display the working process publicly for a clear comprehension on the artist’s work. The studio itself is a very personal and everyday place for the birth of work. Inside the studio, completed artworks are stored, the ones once returned from exhibition are replaced, or empty canvases are piled up. Various types of implements are placed for new creation. In this way, studio becomes storage where not only the physical traces but also emotional traces of personal memory, desire and frustration accumulate. Therefore, studio appears often in the painting since old times as a place where the artist’s private life style and inner thoughts could be peeked through. There are several artworks which come across my mind immediately. by a Spanish court painter Velazquez, by Vincent Van Gogh, and by Gustave Courbet are such. Van Gogh’s reflects the mental state of Van Gogh at Arles, whereas other ‘studio paintings’ by Velazquez and Courbet illustrate their identity as painter. Being a court painter, Velazquez depicts his pride in his group portrait of the royal family with princess in center by inserting a self portrait positioned among them. The Realist artist Courbet visually displaces his declaration of Realism through his painting .

The studio series of Kim BoMin not just simply carry her personal daily routine and emotion on scene. Just like ‘studio painting’ by Velazquez and Courbet, her work rather contemplates on her identity as a painter (an Oriental painter), and its effect and position in this contemporary era. The studio in depiction is where Kim BoMin numerously gives thoughts on the problem of traditional formality that is no longer in progress and also intense agonizing moments remain in order to search for an alternative. And they are all reflected in the ‘studio painting.’ Thus, Kim BoMin’s ‘studio painting’ could be defined as a type of ‘statement.’
 

I looked into an early work by Kim BoMin after a long time. This painting, an indicator that enables to predict her route ahead, had evoked many people’s interest through its dramatic contrast between the interior view depicted with line tape and the view of by Ahn Gyeon replicated outside the window. It was rather random and stifling to see the landscape filling up the whole window in my first sight. It seemed to indicate the oppressed state of artist from its constraints of the tradition within Oriental painting. Such impression became more amplified in the work . The famous art piece of the past which fills up the whole window slightly seen through the shade seemed to obstruct all the possible exit routes.

Kim BoMin applies other old famous paintings frequently in her work, such as , . The idea of mimicking the past masterpiece in terms of Oriental painting is one way to discipline and ultimately search after one’s own method.

In this way, ‘painting’ frequently appears in Kim BoMin ’s painting in window, mirror, drawing board and frame. And their content could be the past scene, the contemporary scene, abstract scene or sometimes without any scene. The ‘painting within painting’ method reads the artist’s attitude toward painting (Oriental painting). Let’s look at the work , a colored canvas with disparately arranged interior view. It is difficult to say the canvas is neither empty nor full. Just as Modernists have questioned on the essence of painting, this canvas is of the question on the essence and limit of painting. The mirror inside is referred as a medium which reflects the artist herself. The mirror from hardly conveys anything. While from the artist veiled in a mist is reflected, thus representing her stance before Oriental painting. As mentioned in the artist’s note, the method of ‘painting within painting’ maintains its self reflective quality. Such attitude toward Oriental painting could be found all over her work. Examples are shown through the way of deriving a formality of folk painting and drawing of ant formed by stains of ink on top of rice paper.

 

Most of the ‘studio series’ display studio observed from all four different perspectives, front, back, right and left arranged in one sight on a horizontally long canvas except . The scene of studio within canvas is close to being chaos. The doors of refrigerator and sink are all opened along with the shelf half sticking out. Ink, brush and paper are all over the place. Once so concentrated on working, the artist had stepped outside the canvas. There are worktable with calligraphy supplies spread on top, an easel with globe, a cassette player and a puppy appearing from here and there. They become elements which reveal the existence of the artist herself. Since Kim BoMin had worked on studio paintings for a long period of time, it is obvious that all the depicted studios differ from one another. The elements inside determine the space is the studio of Kim BoMin. In other words, those items in her studio that Kim BoMin repeatedly draws represent her identity itself in the absence of her presence.

Kim BoMin applies line tape on the traditional method of Oriental painting. Traditional method is generally applied to the natural landscape, whereas artifact such as skyscraper and roads are depicted with line tape. Thus, the work of Kim BoMin can always be easily described and comprehended with schematized dichotomy such as ‘tradition and modernity,’ ‘reality and unreality.’ However, the unfamiliar and disparate impression leads her work to one self reflective painting, once those contradicting elements of contemporary medium and traditional Oriental method encounter one another. Although line tape is an element which dominantly features Kim BoMin’s work, its departure point had begun from the artist’s attitude toward painting (Oriental painting) like any other elements. (Kim BoMin’s study on line and its use appear differently on and . In order to express the transparent ray of sunlight, the artist uses edges created with mark of detached tape. The series of scenery in this exhibition include the expression for rain streak, which display more of her active application of line tape.)

 

Kim BoMin constantly studies on oriental mind and contemporary expression. Instead of simply forsaking the traditional Oriental methodology impertinent to any contemporary expression, this exhibition still inherits the oriental mind by conveying on studio, a place where an intense devotion in search for new alternatives was practiced.
 

_ Kang Sung-Eun (Curator, 2012)