Jaewon Kim (b. 1982, KR)

Jaewon Kim is a Korean artist based in Frankfurt a.M whose work bridges the realm of material science and culture. His research method for the art is the natural phenomenon. He is mainly interested in connecting the natural phenomenon with the artwork. his projects often have a synthetic way to witness the nature’s innate change and movement in the passage of time -such as chemical reaction of liquid and biological materials: mold transform continually. Jaewon’s work approach further reflects upon environmental the process and the material encapsulate our perennial relations with environment today. His works has explored constructions of nature and cultural awareness.

Jaewon Kim – wohnhaft in Frankfurt am  Main, ist ein Koreanischer Künstler, dessen Arbeiten eine Brücke aus der Materialforschung mit der Kultur schlägt. Seine Forschungsmethode für die Kunstarbeit ist das Naturphänomen. Er ist hauptsächlich daran interessiert, das Naturphänomen mit dem Kunstwerk zu verbinden. Seine Projekte haben oft eine synthetische Art – Zeuge der angeborenen Veränderung im Laufe der Zeit in der Natur zu werden – z.b. die chemische Reaktionen von flüssigen und biologischen Materialien: Schimmel verändert sich kontinuierlich. Jaewon’s Arbeiten Reflektieren des weiteren den Ansatz der Umwelt – seine Arbeiten erkunden die Konstruktionen in der Natur und dem Kulturbewusstsein.(DE)   

 

EDUCATIONS

2002 – 2009  BFA, Sculpture Department, Kyunghee University, in Seoul, Republic of Korea
2013 – 2017  Diploma, Sculpture Department, Academy of Art and Design Offenbach, Germany

 

EXHIBITIONS

2018: “High Ends”, Nassauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden, Germany

2017: “Country Hotel Contemporary”, Dernbach, Germany

2017: “Blockadia: Tiefsee”, Kunstverein Feiburg, Freiburg, Germany

2016: “Blockadia: Tiefsee”, Satellit, Berlin, Germany

2015: “Finalist Exhibition”, Celeste Prize 2015, Milan, Italy

2010: “Boiling Point 2″; Young Artist Project”, Kunst Doc Gallery, Seoul, KR

2010: “Young Artist Selection”,  KIMJONGYUNG Sculpture Museum, Seoul, KR

2009: “Personal Documents”,MoA; Meuseum of Seoul Art National University, Seoul, KR

2009: “Conjunction”, Jungmiso Gallery, Seoul, KR

2009: “Boiling Point; Young Artist Project”, Kunst Doc Gallery, Seoul, KR

Etc.

 

SELECTION & AWARDS

2018: Polar Research Institute, icebreaker  “Araon” artist-residence/극지연구소
“아라온호” 승선레지던시
2017: DAAD-scholarship,  „STIBET III“ Rotary Club in Offenbach, Germany
2015: Celeste Prize 2015, Third Prize in Installation, Sculpture and Performance,                            in Milan, Italy

 

Text

– Ellen Wagner, exhibition for NKV/ Nasausischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden

Jaewon Kim uses near-natural as well as industrially processed materials such as pieces of MDF, which are stacked to form slightly tilting towers of differing height. At the heart of a gloomy setting they seem like high-rises in a big-city skyline or the remaining columns of a derelict structure: Miniaturized, abstracted cities, which appear to be deserted as if after a deluge or a hasty evacuation following a chemical accident. The display cases in which the objects are presented are prepared such that they offer ideal moist, warm growing conditions for mold cultures, which the artist has put in them as the only “inhabitants”, as it were, of the isolated cosmoses. With time, the surface textures the fungi create change, go through different colors and shapes, and assume creative co-responsibility with the artist, who initiated the process. Drops of condensed water run down the panes of glass, which in some cases are very steamed up. They create abstract drawings, a mesh of transparent lines, which surrounds the objects like gentle ornamentation with a momentum all of its own.                                                                 The fascination with the emergence of suggestive chance images through weathering processes on rocks, wood, and other mineral and vegetable natural substances is thousands of years old. As long ago as the 15th century, Leonardo da Vinci described seeing chance natural formations such as these a source of inspiration for an artist, who in the traces of weathering can see entire landscapes or even moving battles and subsequently depict them on the canvas. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz even spoke of intense competition between art and nature that is revealed in the, so to speak, self-created rock formations and cave wall surfaces. In Jaewon Kim’s oeuvre there is less evidence of competition between nature and culture than interaction between the two, which in our everyday life and thoughts are in many ways interwoven with each other. Objects such as The Pedestal are reminiscent of bits of wall overgrown with lichens, but from afar look just like they have been coated in action painting-like paint drippings. The show cases’ transparent glass covers not only fulfill a climatizing function, they also emphasize the symbolic value of the works as objets d’art by protecting them from being touched and keeping us at a distance. They are created both through natural growth and weathering processes as well as the associations with which, with our culturally defined concept, we view them.