Herry Kim(김혜리, b. 1995)'s works explore the human experience, translating journeys through both analogue and digital mediums. Each piece weaves an underlying sense of hope, anticipation, and resilience. Her playful and joyful aesthetic shines through the key figures in her paintings, with colors reflecting the serenity and wonder around us. Her brushstrokes embody a free and whimsical spirit, creating paintings filled with wonder and nostalgia. In her works, viewers inhabit the boundary between dichotomies at play: the imagined and the real, the virtual and physical, the unknown and the familiar. These subjects and canvases pay tribute to life’s dreamers and explorers who navigate our world with curiosity and courage.
Born in South Korea, Herry Kim is based in Los Angeles and Seoul. She holds a BFA in Painting and Sculpture from Seoul National University and an MFA in Art and Technology from the California Institute of the Arts. Her works have been exhibited in Seoul, Los Angeles, London, Berlin, and Barcelona.
Within a circular cosmos of my own making, I construct a tranquil utopia. My persona, "Smile," wanders this luminous realm as a radiant coordinate of my being. Manifested through earth, paint, and stroke, "Smile" traverses the boundary between the seen and the unseen, always seeking the brilliance of an aesthetic paradise.
For me, art is a meditative act of transmuting infinite thoughts into physical matter. Each individual possesses a vast, rising landscape of the inner mind; the representational elements in my work are simply anchors for this ephemeral stream of thought. The core of my practice resides in the rhythmic energy of color and the ecstatic Shinmyeong experienced in the heat of creation.
My work is the manifestation of a "tender world." Rather than the final destination, the true essence lies in the act of creation with a hollowed spirit. By breathing the vibrancy of the present into earth and pigment, I meticulously build my sanctuary of light. - Herry Kim