Artists

Minjung Kim is internationally recognized for her contemplative ink paintings on layered mulberry Hanji paper, where burning, tearing, and repetition create delicate compositions of rhythm, texture, and light. Rooted in traditional Korean calligraphy and painting, her practice reinterprets these aesthetics through a process-driven approach that embodies meditation, healing, and emotional balance. By incorporating fire, Kim transforms the surface of her paper into fields of subtle transparency and shadow, evoking both fragility and resilience.

Encouraged from an early age, Kim studied under the watercolorist Yeongyun Kang and trained in Oriental calligraphy for more than a decade before enrolling at Hongik University in Seoul, where she received her BFA and MFA in Oriental painting. In 1991, she graduated from the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan, where exposure to Western modernists such as Paul Klee and Franz Kline shaped her exploration of abstraction. Influenced by both Eastern constancy and Western formal experimentation, her practice bridges cultural traditions while remaining deeply personal.

Kim’s work has been exhibited widely, including solo presentations at Princeton University Art Museum (New Jersey, 2020), Langen Foundation (Neuss, Germany, 2019), Gwangju Museum of Art (Korea, 2018), Musée des Arts Asiatiques (Nice, 2017), Macro–Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Roma (Rome, 2012), and Palazzo Caboto during the Venice Biennale (2015). She has also participated in the Gwangju Biennale (2004, 2018). Her works are in numerous public collections, including the British Museum (London), Leeum Samsung Museum of Art (Seoul), Asia Society Museum (New York), Princeton University Art Museum (New Jersey), the Tate (London), and The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York).