Kim Ikmo Solo Exhibition ‘Chusang Landscape - The World Beyond Gyeongsang’

From the 9th to 18th at Gwangju 'Yesulgongganjip'

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Yoon Jamin] An exhibition of artist Kim Ikmo (professor at Chosun University), who has been painting abstract landscapes inspired by nature, will be held from the 9th to the 18th at ‘Yesulgonggan Jip’ in Dong-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City.

This exhibition features about 20 recent works by Kim.

The artist, who has actively participated in 26 solo exhibitions and over 300 domestic and international group exhibitions, has maintained ‘nature’ as his unwavering motif.

Rather than directly transferring the natural scenery before his eyes, he devotes himself to expressing the imagery encountered in nature through color and form.

Works inspired by nature reconstruct abstract images borrowed from natural objects into his own language and add aesthetic form, resulting in paintings that, while seemingly abstract landscapes, are drawn in forms closer to the ‘world of intuition’ than the world of symbols.

He pictorially expresses ‘something beyond form,’ ‘things invisible to the eye,’ and ‘countless values that cannot be physically proven.’

Kim enjoys reading ‘Zhuangzi’ and ‘Cai Gen Tan,’ practicing a life that does not cling to desire, remains unstained by worldly filth, aspires to a noble state, yet avoids falling into lonely thoughts, and approaches his work with this mindset.

This attitude toward life has become a factor that allows his personal life stance to permeate into his paintings rather than remain confined to daily life. During solitary meditation on nature in his studio, inspiration for his work and his unique painting philosophy gradually take shape, defining the forms and colors of his paintings.

In the 2020 new works exhibited this time, clusters of blurred colors resembling digital screen errors unfold. This painterly expression, reminiscent of a camera’s focus being off, vividly conveys the silent cries Kim felt while observing nature.

His pure perception of nature expresses a world beyond form, naturally drawing viewers’ focus. Images stimulating the senses?colors of the forest, sounds of the wind and birds, colors of trees and flowers?are highly abstract yet evoke nature’s infinite energy and vitality.

The colors and forms filling the paintings, recreated abstractly, clearly transcend the visible images of nature, allowing a deeper appreciation of nature’s fundamental vitality and beauty. This is something only visual art can show, enhancing the emotional impact in this lush green season.

Park Eunji, director of Gallery Art 14, said, “In his paintings, we can feel the primal vitality emanating from nature itself. There is no longer a need to interpret obscure symbols on his canvases. We have reached a point where we can fully enjoy nature as life itself.” She added, “In an era where artworks independently express themselves apart from the artist, if we can pursue spiritual satisfaction, wouldn’t it be perfectly fine to feel endless happiness in front of his canvases?”

Meanwhile, Kim Ikmo graduated from the College of Fine Arts and the Graduate School of Fine Arts at Chosun University and served as a research professor at the State University of New York. He is currently a professor of Contemporary Formative Media at the College of Fine Arts, Chosun University, and is active as a member of the Korean Fine Arts Association’s Contemporary Artists’ Epoch and the Korean Contemporary Printmakers Association.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.