Untitled Document

007 N_either | 91.7x72.7cm | oil on linen | 2010

N_either 090501 | 270X200cm | oil on linen | 2009

N_either 090602 | 200X130cm | oil on linen | 2009

The Marginal Man | 270X195cm | oil on canvas | 2007

JIN KIM
1974 | Lives and Works in Korea

The relationship between the lone character in Jin Kims work and the elaborately decorated surrounding space that fills the canvas around him is central to the heavily painted concept of foreignness and belonging that the artist so often focuses on. This reoccurring figure, commonly regarded as a self-portrait, is too small to be noticed amongst the stereotypically British landscape or interior backgrounds, and too big to be completely harmonized with its surroundings, unearthing an all too familiar, yet discomforting affiliation with the viewer.

ARTIST'S STATEMEMNT: The marginal man

A marginal man is a person caught in the middle; a person born and grew up in another cultural struggling to fit into the foreign way of life in the new cultural environment. A stranger in both worlds, living an incomplete life in the margins of the societies.

I realise that I am a marginal man. My stay in London has been a short one, yet it has been a battle between my unforgotten habits from the old life and the incomprehensible new lifestyle. Here and now, I am in the margin of the UK society. Time, space and the objects and subjects in-between, I exist in the margins.

I wonder how many immigrants out there are thinking like me. When they contemplate their lives standing in the public space, what thoughts occupy their minds amongst the sounds and the phenomena surrounding them? Is this their utopia now or is it just nostalgia for the old utopia persisting in their mind? Or maybe even the natives of the society sometimes feel they are in the margin too?

EDUCATION
2007   MAFA Chelsea College of Art & Design, University of the Arts London
2004   M.F.A Department of Fine Art, Graduate school, Chung-Ang University
2001   B.F.A Department of Fine Art, college of Art, Chung-Ang University

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2010 N_either (Sun Contemporary, Seoul)
------- N_either - into (Gallery pakyoung, Paju)
2009 N_either (I-MYU Projects, London, UK)
2008 Margins (MIKI WICK KIM Contemporary Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland)
2008 Margins (Stables Gallery, London, UK)
2003 A bit of space (Kwanhoon Gallery, Seoul)

GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2010 2010 BYUL COLLECTION NOW (Hyundai Gallery, Seoul)
------- Eye of through Insa-Dong(Gong artspace, Seoul)
------- 40X40X40X40 (Cottonseed, Seoul)
------- Lack of being (Interalia Art Company, Seoul)
------- Intersection (Gallery Lamer, Seoul)
2009 Star Wars-EpisodeⅡ (UNC Gallery, Seoul)
------- KSBDA -International Fall Exhibition-Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan
(Sangmyung University)
2008 4482 - Korean Contemporary Artists in London (Barge house, Oxo Tower Wharf, London)
------- Welcome Home (Sun Contemporary, Seoul)
------- ‘00 Nature Nature in the Art of the Twenty First Century (Contemporary Art Projects, London)
2007 The Korean contemporary arts show in London 2007-The spectrum (Jerwoodspace, London)
------- ‘ARCADIA’ (I-MYU Project space, London)
------- 4482 - Korean Contemporary Artists in London (King's Park Business Center, London)
------- Chelsea 2007 MA Show (Chelsea College of Art & Design, London)
------- The Open - (King's Park Business Center, Studio Unit 69, 205, 207, London)
2006 Event in London (The Plum Tree, London)
2004 Donga Grand Art Exhibition (National Modern Art Museum, Kwachon)
------- Looking for Rhythm (gallerychang, Seoul)
------- Drawing 0’C – Exhibition of three artists (Kwanhoon Gallery, Seoul)
------- The 8th “Life” – The 9th of Imagination, The 9th of Adventure (Dukwongallery, Seoul)
------- Art Work Exhibition of Professor in Kosin University (Davin Gallery, Pusan)
------- Boujour Tout Le Monde - Supported by ministry of Culture & Tourism (Mokam Museum, Goyang)
2003 Korean Contemporary Art (Cascata Gallery, Vancouver, Canada)
------- The 32nd Figurative Exhibition (National Modern Art Museum, Kwachon)
------- The 8th Group Exhibition「The Life」- The memory of Tomorrow (Kwanhoon Gallery, Seoul)
2002 The 21st Grand Art Exhibition of Korea (National Modern Art Museum, Kwachon)
------- The 24th Joong-Ang Grand Art Exhibition (Hoam Art Museum,Seoul)
------- Painting of Homogeneity (Chung-Ang Art Center, Seoul)
------- The 4th Danwon Art Competition (Danwon Gallery, Ansan)
------- The 7th Group Exhibition「The Life」- Return to Innocence (Chung-Ang Art Center, Seoul)
2001 The 23rd Joong-Ang Grand Art Exhibition (Hoam Art Museum, Seoul)
2000 The 19th Grand Art Exhibition of Korea (National Modern Art Museum, Kwachon)
------- The 11th Exhibition of Misulsegue (Sejong Culture and Arts Center, Seoul)
------- The 7th Art Principle Exhibition (Seorabol gallery-Ansung)
1999 The 6th Art Principle Exhibition – Paik Nam Jun (Seorabol gallery, Ansung)
------- Performance – The 20th Century – The Black Plague
------- Image Experienced Exhibition – (Seorabol gallery – Ansung)
1998 The 5th Art Principle Exhibition – What is the object for? (Jung-Ang University – Main Campus)
------- The 4th Art Principle Exhibition – The Hole (Seorabol gallery – Ansung)

RESEARCH AND TEACHING
2002 Research Assistant, Art Center, Chung-Ang University
2003 Teaching Assistant, Art Center, Chung-Ang University
2004 Lecturer: Fine Art, Kosin University
2010 Gallery Pakyoung 2nd residency
------- Lecturer : Fine Art, Chung-Ang University
------- Lecturer : Fine Art, Se-Jong University
------- Lecturer : Hanseo University

AWARDS AND RESIDENCIES
2010 2011 SOAF Young Artist 10
2009-2010, 2010-2011 Gallery Pakyoung 2nd residency
2004 Donga Art Exhibition, 2003 The 32nd Figurative Exhibition 'special selection'
2002 The 21st The Grand Art Exhibition of Korea, The 24th Joong-Ang Culturemedia Art Exhibition, The 4th Danwon Art Exhibition
2001 The 23th Joong-Ang Culturemedia Art Exhibition
2000 The 19th The Grand Art Exhibition of Korea, Art World Exhibition

MARGINS

Most of us have probably faced a moment where we feel ourselves to be strangers and thus are forced to look back on the past, touch our own skin, and re-examine the things around us. Kim Jin’s story is about people like us, including the artist, who suddenly have to think about ourselves. We stare into a mirror, pull out someone else’s old photographs, and look around our environment. In Kim’s pieces, a character is usually placed within or in front of certain scenes.

Like his previous work that appeared somewhat existential as an extension of his pursuit of geometric space, the relationship between this character and the surrounding space in his current work is of great significance. This figure is too small to be noticed among the background and too big to be completely harmonized with its surroundings. Absent-mindedly standing, the ambiguous figure with tangled hair can appear wise, kind, and lonesome all at the same time. The familiar scene recalls a typical British landscape and interior. The vagueness and tension derived from this figure and his surroundings becomes set in the minds of viewers.

Our existential fear of unfamiliar surroundings can be symbolically understood through extreme experiences, as seen in Max Fisch’s Mein Name Sei Gantenbein. Running away from a hospital in the nude and roaming around the streets, one realizes that he cannot go in anywhere, he cannot talk anyone, and he cannot be part of any place. It is both uncomfortable and embarrassing. Those walking around him all have something to do with each other, but have nothing to do with him, a nude man. The door he faces makes him realize that he is not a part of anything anymore with its message declaring, “No entry to unauthorized persons,” as he has no evidence to prove that he is an authorized person.

Kim’s work, titled Margins, intends to suggest that we don’t belong anywhere as we so often stand at the border. The departure point for his work was an awareness of his own unfamiliarity in an unfamiliar place as a timid, foreign student. What he feels in a British-style interior is a similar feeling to being in the dark. He doesn’t know which seat is comfortable in an environment surrounded by old, worn-out furniture, books scattered here and there, thick curtains, antique Chinese-style ceramics, and old, slightly dark-colored carpets. Even after he becomes connected and familiar to the space, he always retains the memory of himself standing estranged and apart from these surroundings.

The window that always appears in Kim’s work together with the figure in an unfamiliar background signifies the possibility of assimilation into these unfamiliar surroundings. The window is always placed in between the figure and the background, separating the space and offering the possibility to enlarge the space. With the intense and scattered lines reminiscent of a woodcut print, a figure awkwardly stands before the window cut off from his surrounding space.

The figure’s incongruity is further emphasized when placed in a setting with no sense of perspective in the painting. The figure sometimes looks scattered in the background as both are figure and background are blended together with intense lines. However, we can perhaps suppose that the figure can still breathe air through the window and will eventually be able to become linked with the outside world and his surroundings.

The figures in Kim Jin’s work are perhaps the artist’s self-portraits and also self-portraits for everyone. In Romain Gary’s novel Solomon, Solomon gets at a flea market a picture postcard something has been written on its back and preciously keeps it for long years. Solomon has never seen and become acquainted with the figure in this postcard and moreover, the figure is neither a celebrity nor a person with conspicuously good looks. However, Solomon cherishes it with affection for traces of the one who once existed but is now forgotten and disappeared.

If we have affection for the figure in Kim’s work who is probably Kim himself or someone else we have never known, the reason is that he appears not dominant, ambiguous yet familiar to us, resembles someone in our memories, and exists in our consciousness. Our affection for the disappearing is the warm-hearted gaze we are able to have for those insignificant and trivial, sharp consciousness of being.

- EUNICE ENBOK YU

자기 자신의 낯설음을 깨닫게 되는 어떤 실존적인 순간이, 자신의 주위를 둘러 보고 자신의 피부를 만져 보고 그리고 자신이 살아온 인생을 자리에 앉아 차분히 생각해 보는 그런 순간이 누구에게나 있을지 모르겠다. 작가 김진의 이야기는 우리들이 거울을 보고 또 낡은 누군가의 사진을 갑자기 펼쳐 들어 그 자리에서 가만히 자신에 대해, 사진 속의 인물에 대해 생각해 보던 순간에 대한 작가의, 그리고 관객의 이야기이다.

김진의 작업 속에는 대체로 어떤 하나의 인물이 어떤 풍경 속에 혹은 그것을 뒤로하며 자리하고 있다. 이전 작업의 실존적이며 기하학적 공간에 대한 탐구로부터의 연장처럼, “Margins”으로 이름 한 이 작업들에서도 이 인물과 공간과의 관계는 매우 중요하다. 인물은, 작아서 주변 풍경에 파묻혀 있거나 혹은 너무 크기 때문에 환경과 어딘가 동떨어진 느낌을 준다. 헝클어진 머리와 함께 우두커니 서 있는 인물은 영리한지, 착한지, 외로운지 잘 알 수 없는 모호한 인물이며, 풍경은 어디에서인가 본 듯한, 그리고 전형적인 영국적인 풍경과 실내를 연상시킨다. 그 인물과 환경에서 오는 모호함과 긴장감은 작업을 보고 있는 관객의 마음속에 내내 자리잡고 있을 것이다.

자기 자신의 낯섦과 환경에 대한 실존적 두려움은 막스 프리쉬의 ‘간텐바인’에 그려진 어떤 한 인물의 어떤 극단적인 경험을 통해 상징적으로 이해할 수 있다. 어느 날 병원에서 나체로 뛰쳐나와 거리를 달리게 되는 ‘그’가 겪게 되는 자기 자신의 낯섦과 당황스러움은 어느 장소에도 들어갈 수도, 누군가와 대화를 할 수도, 어느 장소에도 어울리지 않는 존재가 되어버림을 통해 느낄 수 있다. 주변의 거리를 걷고 있는 사람들은 나체의 인물인 ‘그’와 동떨어져 그들끼리의 어떤 삶의 연관을 가지고 있으며, 주위의 어떤 풍경에도 자신이 끼어들어 자연스러운 곳은 없다. ‘그’가 마주치는 문들은 ‘관계자외 출입금지(NO ENTRY TO UNAUTHORISED PERSONS)’가 쓰여진, 자기 자신이 어디에도 관계되어 있지 않은 존재라는 것을 의식하게 하는 문이다. ‘그’는 관계자임을 입증할 수 있는 어느 것도 지니고 있지 못하므로.

“Margins”이라는 주제 속에서 드러나는 김진의 작업은, 어떤 경계에 있기 때문에 어느 곳에도 속하지 않음을 말하고자 한다. 유학생으로 느끼는 개인적인 소심함이나 환경에 대한 낯섦과 같은 작가 자신의 개인적 의미뿐 아니라, 낯선 장소에서 작품을 해나가기 위한 작가로서 자신과 작품에 대해 의식하게 되는 계기로부터 출발하고 있다. 외국인으로서 영국적 실내 풍경 속에 서서 느끼는 기분은 대체로 약간 어두운 실내 속에서 느끼는 낯섦이다. 낡고 오래된 가구들과 여기저기에 놓여 있는 서적, 두꺼운 커튼, 오래된 중국 풍의 도자기 몇 점, 그다지 깨끗한지 어떤지 알 수 없는 낡고 약간 어두운 빛깔의 카펫들 속에서 어디에 앉아야 편안함을 느낄지 즉각 알 수 없는 느낌을 갖게 되곤 한다. 그 속에서 우두커니 떨어져 동화되지 못한 듯이 서 있던 자신에 대한 기억은 그 실내가 익숙해지고 편안해진 다음에도 언제나 마음에 인상으로 남는다.

하지만 그러한 낯선 배경 속에 그려진 인물에게 환경과의 동화의 가능성은 김진의 작품에서 인물과 함께 언제나 등장하는 중요한 ‘창’과 함께 있다. 창은 언제나 멀리 혹은 가까이에 인물과 배경 사이에 있어 그 공간을 단절 시키고 혹은 공간을 더 펼치기 위한 가능성을 준다. 인물의 내면은 목판화 같이 강하면서도 흩어지는 선들의 묘사를 통해, 공간과 동화되지 못한 채로 창 앞에 어색하게 서 있는데, 그러한 묘사로 이루어진 인물은 배경과 서로 원근감 없이 놓여져 있어 낯설음이 더욱 강조되기도 하고 배경과 인물의 형태가 강한 선들 속에 서로 섞여 인물이 배경 속에 흩어져 보이기도 한다. 그렇지만 그 선들 속의 인물이 언젠가는 그 뒤의 투명한 창을 통해 저 너머의 푸른 하늘과 공기를 마실 것을 알기 때문에 그가 그 창을 통해 외부와 또 주변의 환경과 연결될 것임을 알게 된다.

김진의 작품 속의 인물은 작가 자신의 자화상이 될 수 있지만, 그것은 어느 날 집어 든 낡은 사진처럼 어느 누구의 자화상도 될 수 있다. 로맹 가리의 ‘솔로몬’이라는 소설 속에 인물, 솔로몬은 벼룩 시장에서 우연히 집어 올린 낡은 사진 엽서, 뒤에는 어느 알지 못하는 누군가에게 보내려 했던 흔적이 적혀져 있는 엽서를 언제까지고 소중히 간직한다. 그는 사진 속의 인물을 결코 본적도 알지도 못하고 더군다나 사진 속의 인물은 어느 유명인사도 딱히 두드러질 만한 외모도 아니다. 그러나 한때 존재했었으나 지금은 잊혀져 가며 사라져 가는 한 인물의 흔적에 대해 애정을 갖고서 그 엽서를 소중히 간직하고 있는 것이다. 김진 작품 속의 인물, 우리들이 결코 알지 못하거나 혹은 김진 작가 자신이거나, 혹은 우리들 자신일 수도 있는 누군가의 모습에 애정을 갖게 된다면, 그 이유는 그 인물이 어딘가의 중심에서 군림하는 누군가의 모습이 아니라, 낯설면서도 모호하고 또 우리 기억 속의 누군가와 닮았고, 잊혀져 가며 사라져 가는 누군가로서 우리들의 실존의 의식 속에 존재하는 모습이기 때문이다. 사라져 가는 것에 대한 애정은 언제나 차가운 존재에 대한 의식이 아닌 보잘것없는 누군가, 어느 사소한 인
간에 대한 우리가 가질 수 있는 자기 연민의 형태를 담은 따뜻한 시선이다.

- 유은복

N_either

Jin Kim’s solo exhibition ‘N_either’ explores the infinite notions of disparity and not belonging. In his series of oil paintings we see the artist illustrating the issue of marginality as an effect of cultural adjustment with a strong painterly skill. Kim, a young Korean artist working in London, translates his battle of shifting between cultures and experiencing life on the outskirts of society into his work. Just as I-MYU Projects dedicates its space to cross culture curating, Jin Kim’s work explores the complexities that immigrants are faced with when relocating, and he demonstrates the sensory and geographical stresses one may encounter when forced to adjust ones mental and physical sense of belonging.

A reoccurring figure appears alone in every painting, though the relationship between him (an explicit self portrait) and the surrounding space alters as we witness him transported between typically British interior layouts and similarly British garden like scenes. Depths of colour sit behind the figure in both situations, though the interior spaces engulf the figure as he blends almost seamlessly with the well-proportioned furniture and architecture. In the outdoor views Kim inserts a barrier of a window between the figure and the flowery scenes creating a rather separate explanation of the relationship the figure encounters with his surroundings. Both situations convey tones of displacement, alienation, and isolation, and by engaging the concept from the two distinct angles in this way the artist is laying great emphasis on the unyielding discomfort a marginal life may bring.

Our feelings towards the figure become sensitive and gentle as we see him passively inactive in the familiar spaces. The artist is not extracting pity from the audience though, as any universal spectator can identify with social situations akin to these. This alien perspective is a human condition; as is the desire to be part of a culture and Kim’s paintings depict how the awkwardness and distress of not attaining such simple conditions is common amongst us all.

- Michelle Stafford