Entrepreneur and Painter 'CI KIM' Opens Thirteenth Solo Exhibition

Presenting Over 60 New Works Including Painting, Sculpture, Installation, Drawing, and Readymade Objects

Kim Chang-il Arario Chairman, who works under the stage name 'C-Kim'

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heeyoon] Artist 'CI KIM' is holding his thirteenth solo exhibition, ‘Overcome Such Feelings,’ at Arario Gallery Cheonan.

The exhibition runs until April 16 of next year. It showcases over 60 new works across various genres including painting, sculpture, installation, drawing, and readymade objects.

In this new series, CI KIM actively utilized discarded objects. He explained that, having been accustomed since childhood to spending time alone, apart from groups, he identified himself with used-up items and worked with the idea of breathing life and soul into them.

_Adele, 2022, acrylic and coffee on canvas, 250x200cm. Photo by Arario Gallery

Additionally, nine large-scale coffee painting series works, each sized 200, featuring cover images from popular magazines such as 'Rolling Stone,' 'Fortune,' 'GQ,' and 'TIME,' also capture the audience's attention. The magazine cover artworks, filled with faces of famous personalities and text, offer viewers a sensation as if entering the magazine itself, presenting a familiar yet unfamiliar landscape.

The neon artwork displayed on the gallery's fourth floor, inscribed with the English phrase 'A time of suffering is followed by dreams,' is CI KIM’s personal confession, reflecting his passionate work through annual solo exhibitions over the past four years.

Kim Chang-il, chairman of the local company Arario Industries in Cheonan, Chungnam, has been continuing his artistic activities under the stage name ‘CI KIM’ since 1999.

Starting with the opening of ‘Arario Gallery Cheonan’ in 2002, CI KIM established ‘Arario Gallery Seoul’ (currently in Samcheong-dong) in 2006, and in 2014 opened four Arario Museums in Jeju Island as well as ‘Arario Museum in Space,’ a renovated space in Wonseo-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul. Currently, CI KIM owns two galleries and five museums domestically.

Exhibition view of C-Kim. Photo by Arario Gallery

Known also as a global power collector, CI KIM was selected among the top 200 power collectors worldwide by ArtNews in the United States. His collection is reported to include over 7,000 pieces.

CI KIM explained, "I often use shapes that come to mind while walking by the seaside or reading books as subjects, which leads me to paint abstract forms or recreate sentences and words into artworks. Diversity is exactly my work, and genre is exactly CI KIM."

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