Gallery 2 presents a new solo exhibition by Hyena Kim, who uses both characteristic and randomly generated forms to translate her experience and emotions into paintings. This exhibition provides an ideal opportunity to experience Kim’s practice, which has become much more mature and diverse through a series of more than ten oil paintings that she’s developed since last year.

Oil painting as an exploration of new materiality

In her previous works Hyena Kim had stubbornly stuck to materials such as gouache and pastel. This was because of the immediacy they brought when expressing her feelings. This recent shift to oil paint has provided her with a chance to explore a different kind of materiality. Having turned her back on familiar materials, and embarked on the involved process needed to gain an understanding of this new media, Kim was able to raise her painting to a higher level, by using a broader diversity of colors, and beginning to compose her works on compactly structured canvases.

Experience and memory clearly incorporated within an abundance of sensibilities

Each work sits upon a clear background. The starting points for Kim’s works are the things that she feels while living her daily life or the narratives that are found in her surroundings. They are tacit reflections on the events that occur in relationships between her friends or her family ? such as hurt, betrayal or compassion ? as well as the sense of awe and fear that is felt when entering a new natural environment. They are the stories and the ensuing feelings that relate to the events experienced at specific points of time. They are reflected in Kim’s free-flowing use of abstract forms, lines and colors. Embodied within each narrative there is a sort of psychological landscape, described by natural elements such as earth, water, air or a flag blowing in the wind; by abstract forms such as lines visualizing energy; as well as by figurative representations of vaguely distorted faces and bodies, an element which has been carried through from her previous works.

Endless exploration of the ego and the world

Kim’s work has consistently reflected her thoughtful consideration of others, of herself, and of her ego. One thing that has changed, however, is that her previous closed and threatening attitudes have turned into more meditative ones. This might perhaps be the reason why her depictions of human and nature include both positive and skeptical perspectives. For instance the works Chinese Bamboo and Three Stars depict genuine relationships of co-existence and collaboration between a figure and the people around him, while I’m Thinking displays a scene where trouble is about to disrupt a relationship. Meanwhile the faintly drawn face in You Might Be There seems to look down on a figure in You Don’t Fight, constructing a narrative relationship between these two different works. Natural elements such as thunder, the night sky, and shrubs sporadically appear within the paintings with a variety of colors and lines to convey emotions that are mixed between feelings of fear and security. In this way, Kim may perhaps come closer to the world, while expanding her enquiry into the truth in her surroundings.