04 : ABOUT THE EXHIBITIONFor her first exhibition at the Art'loft, Lee-Bauwens gallery, the artist Jiana Kim will present a series of works made during the summer at the Boghossian Foundation's artist residency.
To Jiana Kim, clay is a means through which she fulfills her desire to draw with “light.” In considering herself simply as an artist who works with clay-rather than a ceramic artist. Jiana Kim had been contemplating on how to express her artistic inspiration from light. She was captivated by the infinite possibility of clay’s formative nature and began to devote her work to it.
Sharp-edged porcelain pieces of various shapes that resemble cracked egg shells are analogous to all matters in the world, and together, these pieces construct a small universe on the surface to which they are attached. Kim’s porcelain pieces may be metaphors for the 7 billion people residing on earth, or they may simply represent the beauty of assembly as a conventional value.
Jiana Kim’s porcelain artworks were originally inspired by the translucent quality of bone china. Yet Kim’s work also clearly reminds us of the translucent glow of light created by traditional Korean windows and doors, so I wish to relate her work to these windows and doors made with changhoji, traditional Korean paper. Korean windows and doors were designed to filter the strong sun rays and let soft light into the rooms. Implicit in this design are Korean ancestors’ wisdom and their spirit of moderation.
It is perhaps by coincidence, but is it quick to conclude that Jiana Kim’s porcelain paintings remind us of Dansaekhwa (Abstraction Korean monochrome painting), which has been receiving international spotlight? Considering the trend of later period Dansaekhwa painters using various industrial materials, it seems reasonable to place Kim’s porcelain paintings in the Dansaekhwa category.
Yoon Jin-Sup, Art Critic
_Learn more about Jiana Kim in the
artist's CV
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