It is the one thing for Western artists to borrow from their counterparts in the Far East – they’ve been doing so since the first gaileon circumvented the globe. But it is quiet another matter when the procedure is reversed, as it was after the end of World War II.

Jinchul Kim was born in Korea and having achieved both his BFA and MFA there, he moved to the United States, where he has since gained an additional master’s degree and, over the last decade, exposure in numerous Manhattan galleries.

The artist has worked non-objectively, he has also experimented with video and other technological advances. But now, his attention is consumed by the style most at odds with Eastern tradition, namely Photo-Realism. Furthermore, he concentrates on subjects that lend themselves to the mode-Wyeth-like landscapes, comely young women with tousled blonde hair, figures seated in automobiles and the like.

Consciously or not, Kim sometimes gives an Asiatic cast to a Western face but this is so slight as to be all but imperceptible. In all other respects he appears to be technically and culturally transformed, a painter in his late thirties waiting and assisting in the fusion of all the world's cultures. He certainly has the experience necessary for achieving this end but there is always the possibility of a revolt by his soul. Kim may well be too talented and too cosmopolitan for his own good.

Art Reviewed By
New York Times Art Critic Vivien Raynor