Hee Sook Kim
Biography
Hee Sook Kim is a visual artist who has won numerous grants and awards in USA, Europe, and Asia including Pollock-Krasner and Leeway Foundations (New York), Fleisher Art Memorial Wind Challenge and Leeway Foundation (Philadelphia), Center for Contemporary Printmaking (CT), Ascona Centro Incontri Umani (Switzerland), Helene Wurlitzer Foundation (New Mexico), Brandywine Workshop in Philadelphia, Millay Colony, Vermont Studio Center. Her work is shown nationally and internationally in solo and group exhibitions at Philadelphia International Airport, Bronx Museum, Queens Museum, Drawing Center, Asian American Art Center, Bronx River Art Center (New York), Korean Cultural Center (Washington DC), New Mexico Art Museum, Lincoln Center (Fort Collings, CO), Phillips Museum of Art (PA), NC Museum of Natural Science (Raleigh, NC), National Museum of Modern Art, Youngeun Museum, Artside Gallery (Seoul, Korea), Taipei City Museum of Art, Osaka City Museum, and Le Centre d'Estudis d'Art Centemporari (Barcelona, Spain). She currently is Chair of Fine Arts and Professor at Haverford College, PA.
Artist Statement
Since last fall, I have worked hard to pull myself from the ongoing stress of confined everyday life seriously affecting my artmaking. These virtual social activities become ever more unrealistic. Cold weather in the winter season made me crave for colorful flowers and plants which landed into the series, “Medicinal Garden,” hoping for the healing lights in the grey, dark, numb emotional states. Those colors lifted my spirit and inspired playfulness opening my imagination to this piece that took me over three months to finish. This piece is created using Korean folk painting style and its bright colors and I combined elements from everyday life hoping for everlasting healthy lives for all of us, inspired by the longevity paintings during Joseon Dynasty in Korea.
We need to play like free-spirited kids in a playground with friends and animals. When you wake up with a plethora of birds’ songs in the morning, you truly feel alive. Changing greens from various sprouts in early spring make you feel refreshed and that magical wonder of tiny seeds is the power of life. Greens, pink, yellow, white flowering trees greet you in your walk. Crocuses and dandelions in your steps lead you to open fields for hopes for brighter futures. Circling hawks in the deep blue sky makes you look high up further with more imaginations. Fish in deep water swim. Dancing butterflies flirt around flowers. Red cardinals in your backyard in chilly freezing winter surprise you with a sudden joy when you are down. We anticipate abundant crops, fruits of peaches and apples, with sure faith. Families are together like colorful ducks and harvesting rabbits in a fairy tale. Yes, spring comes after winter and fall follows summer. Sun and Moon still come every day and assure our existence on earth. Nature is our steady hope no matter what.
Country United States
Website www.heesookkim.com
