By Kayla Lee

 

Expressing pure beauty in his uniquely structured works, artist Kim Sejoong draws the viewers deep into a magical time in a single space that allows them to see things in a new light and make them look amazing. 

The thousands and tens of thousands of hours of perseverance they have put in have not been in vain. This is the beauty that reborn European art forms and awakened the sense of art in the East. 

 

It will be a fantastic time to open the eyes and minds of the viewers with the reorganization of space and the illumination of vision, guiding them to a new world.

 
Looking at Artist Kim's three-dimensional works of flat beauty, you can't help but want to stroke them with your fingertips. And the hidden artistic soul within you will be stirred up, giving you the urge to color and fold all the immaculate things in the world. 

 

▲ Between eternity and moment, 39.3×32.1㎝, oil on canvas, 2023

 Eternity in frozen time

While juxtaposing or being compatible with extreme reality and surrealism on the same screen, his work, which has established its own territory away from the general and fixed trend of art history, focuses on 'eternity'. Contact with the essence of existence that lies behind the visible visual surprises is at the core of his work, i.e., 'contact' with the familiar/existing/given existence.

This is confirmed by the fact that he has consistently repeated “Dream the Eternity” as the title of his works since 2012, and that the 'pebbles' that often appear in his works are not only a means of referring to the 'eternity of time' that guarantees the essence of existence, but also an act of correlation that sensually connects reality under the link of subject and object.

 

▲ Between eternity and moment, 138.1×96㎝, oil on canvas, 2021

However, along with the statues, the pebbles also have a deeper meaning than it seems. First of all, the pebbles resemble human beings with their own uniqueness. The cobblestones clustered together represent the community within a society. If the pile of pebbles on the screen is a community, then each pebble is a human life that becomes smaller and rounder as it collides with the countless 'grains of time'. Stones and people alike, rough and angular, are worn down and softened by time.

 

▲ Dream the Eternity, 30×29.8㎝, oil on canvas, 2018

 

The pebbles make the sound of friction, which is caused by the pebbles floating in the waves and touching each other. This is no different from the sound of life. Our daily lives, sometimes painful, sometimes joyful, are similar to pebbles, where they are swept away by something like a giant wave, but then they return to their own place with a calm and clear sky and continue their lives. We make tangible and intangible sounds at different times. 

 

▲ Dream the Eternity, 77.2×130.3㎝, oil on canvas, 2011

For the artist, sound is equivalent to the sound of nature, the sound of existence. And this is 'expressed' in his paintings. The pebble is not just a natural object, but the life of 'you' and 'me', an object corresponding to each of them, and it becomes a representation of the subject as it is transformed into the life of the artist's 'self'.
The pebbles in his work are not only natural objects that hold aspirations and wishes, but also symbols of the artist's aesthetic compass, a place of regression and circulation, a surreal intersection of real time and eternal time. It is also difficult to deny that in 2005, the artist broke away from the flow that was consistent with 'silence' and opened the door to today's artist who swims in time. 

 

▲ Dream the Eternity, 109.1×161.9㎝, oil on canvas, 2012_.

Among them, 'time' can be said to be an important topic that confirms the artist's eternity.

 

▲ Dream the Eternity, 73.2×116.8㎝, oil on canvas, 2012

 

 

Career of Kim Sejoong 

2022 Graduated from General Graduate School of Hongik University, Department of Fine Arts, Painting Major (Ph. D in fine arts)
2006 Graduated from Hongik University, Department of Painting (Master in fine arts)
2003 Graduated from Hongik University College of Fine Arts, Department of Painting

Solo Exhibitions 
2023 Being and Breathing (Gallery BHAK, Seoul)
2022 Between Eternity and Moment (THE Gallery, Gyeonggi-do)
2022 Between Eternity and Moment (Kim Sejoong Museum, Seoul)
2020 Between Eternity and Moment (Kim Sejoong Museum, Seoul)
2020 Strange and Unfamiliar Dreams (Jungmungyu Museum of Art, Gyeonggi Province)
2019 Entre l'éternité et l'instant (Atelier Claude Monet, FRANCE)
2016 Nature, Dream, Eternity (Park Soo Geun Art Museum, Gangwon-do)
2013 Dreaming of Eternity (Park Young-Deok Gallery, Seoul)
2008 Embracing Eternity (Park Young-Deok Gallery, Seoul)
2005 Whispers in the Dark (Hongik University Museum of Contemporary Art / Space Morning, Seoul)
2005 Whispers in the Dark (Gallery PICI, Seoul)

Group exhibitions and art fairs (310-odd times)

 

Awards   
2022 Grand Prize, Hoban Cultural Foundation Young Artist Art Competition '2022 H-EAA'
2020 The 23rd World Peace Art Exhibition 'Overall Grand Prize _ Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Award'
2014 Danwon Art Festival 'Selected Artist'
2011 The 2nd Catholic Art Competition 'Excellence Award'
2006 Danwon Art Exhibition 'Special Prize'
2006 The 25th Korea Art Exhibition 'Special Prize'

 

Residencies
2015 The 10th Artist-in-Residence at the Park Soo Geun Museum of Art Creative Studio (Yanggu, Gangwon-do)
2013~2014 Gyeonggi Creative Center Institutional Cooperation Residency Artist (Gyeonggi Creative Center, Gyeonggi Province)

 

Possession of Works
Ministry of Defense, Hanwha Group, Medical Group Vestian, Catholic Archdiocese of Seoul, Gwangju Art Museum, Danwon Art Museum, Park Soo Geun Museum, RYC Center, New York, Hongik University Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea University Museum, Hoban Cultural Foundation, etc.