“Painting is consciousness made visible,” writes Justin Kim, who brings a 21st century sensibility to the tradition of landscape painting. Kim was chosen as Best in Show by critic Andrew Russeth in the 2014 Art of the Northeast competition; this solo exhibition is the result of that award. Justin Kim was born in Hartford, Connecticut, and educated at Yale (B.A.) and American University (M.F.A.). He explores themes and methods found both in traditional landscapes and modern ones. His work depicts space, light, and color while also exposing the methods and means (schematic drawing, synthetic color, constructed spaces).
While a student, Kim worked as an intern for artist David Hockney. Adept with color and the complexities of perception, Kim seeks in his work to embody the experience of being in a place and time. As the artist writes: “Perception isn’t fixed. Like the world, it is constantly changing – selective, subjective, personal. Looking out on the world we experience fractured moments that somehow hang together. Painting is a way of filtering these experiences and sensations through the lens of form: vectors, shapes, colors, planes, patterns. All of this is layered, combined, synthesized. The result is an image that’s guided by perception – fragmented yet whole.”
The subjects depicted in Kim’s work are drawn from personal experience: the California desert, Sierra Nevada, Cape Cod, New York City. He reconstitutes these scenes using different resources: sketches. compositional drawings, digital projections and memory. He describes his mixed-media works as hybrids. They are both landscape and perceptual map of experience.
Kim has exhibited across the Northeast including: Denise Bibro, Brenda Taylor and Bowery Galleries in New York City; B.J. Spoke in Huntington, NY; The Oxbow Gallery in Northampton, MA; Manifest Gallery in Cincinnati; Jannotta Gallery at Smith College: and Beard & Weil Galleries at Wheaton College in Norton, MA. Recent grants and awards include a Working Artist Grant (2014) as well as the Best in Show Award for the Art of the Northeast Competition. His work has been included in Studio Visit and Fresh Paint Magazines. He was also one of 20 artists selected to represent New York City in Artist Portfolio Magazine, Issue 15: LA vs. NY. Kim has a studio in Long Island City, NY, and has taught at Yale, Dartmouth, Smith College and Deep Springs College in California.
