An Exploration of 'Water, Humans, and Relationships' Drawn from the Vast Ocean

International Gallery Busan, Byron Kim Solo Exhibition 'Marine Layer'
Exploration of Water Begun During the Pandemic

"How difficult it is to ignite others. To light a fire in someone else, the match itself must be destroyed! I boldly did what I wanted. I will continue to do what I want."

Artist Byron Kim.
[Photo by Kukje Gallery]

In Herman Melville's novel Moby Dick, Ahab is obsessed with killing the white whale Moby Dick and wanders the sea. I willingly go out to sea and fight the whale for the 'thing I want.' While everyone focuses on the protagonist Ahab or the narrator Ishmael, Korean-American artist Byron Kim builds a friendship with the narrator and Captain Ahab aboard the Pequod, and focuses on Queequeg, the Native American harpooner who prepared his own coffin for his death but instead saved lives. His pure, open, and faithful figure, and the seascape he leads, come to the audience as a transcendental landscape through the artist’s imagination, as the Pequod rushes toward destruction.

Byron Kim (62), a Korean-American artist, is currently holding a solo exhibition titled Marine Layer at Kukje Gallery Busan. Through 11 works from his ‘B.Q.O.’ series, the exhibition offers delicate colors of water realized through the artist’s imagination, depicting the sky viewed from the sea, underwater scenes, and the surface of the water. The title ‘B.Q.O.’ is derived from the first letters of Berton, Queequeg, and Odysseus, characters appearing in Stanisław Lem’s Solaris, Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, and Homer’s Odysseus, respectively. The series originated from novels the artist reread while staying on Captiva Island, Florida, during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, when movement was restricted, the artist spent time on a remote island with the sea, swimming, and novels nearby. His imagination led to internalizing the deep underwater world and the surface of the sea he had seen.

Byron Kim ?_B.Q.O. 27 [Photo provided by Kukje Gallery]

As the exhibition theme Marine Layer suggests, the artist’s works are presented in a triptych format with three canvas panels placed side by side. The bottom canvas depicts underwater scenes, the middle canvas shows the water’s surface, and the top canvas captures the sky as seen from beneath the sea. The artist explains, "Most of my work talks about relationships to the whole," and adds, "I focused on how I connect with people in this world and how we connect to a greater whole beyond ourselves." The artist’s perspective reaches the audience multilayeredly through immersion, imagination, and reinterpretation of various water surfaces and underwater landscapes from Captiva Island, the La Jolla coast of the Pacific Ocean, indoor swimming pools in New York and San Diego, and Toby Pond in Connecticut.

"The pandemic brought me closer to the sea. In some ways, I think this pandemic happened because humanity neglected the Earth," the artist says, introducing that "this work contains such deep and underlying meanings." His work, which focuses on the sea as a metaphor for human struggle through three novel characters who fight and compete with the sea, will continue in the future. The artist has been presenting his ‘Sunday Painting’ series, drawing a diary every Sunday for 22 years. His ‘Je-yu-beop’ series, which captures the skin tones of various people on hundreds of small panels, has also been ongoing for 32 years. The artist’s persistence beyond talent is a testament to the greatness of perseverance.

Byron Kim solo exhibition 'Marine Layer' display.
[Photo by Kukje Gallery]

"I wanted to be a poet. But there were so many outstanding poets at Yale University that I didn’t think I could do well," the artist confesses, suggesting that his frustration with others’ talents led him to shift his career from literature to art. However, he soon adds, "By the time I finished my undergraduate studies, I encountered contemporary art and thought I could steadily develop in this field. Through this, I think I became free from comparisons with others." This reveals the artist’s perseverance that overcame talent. The artist’s ongoing work, without an ending, promises the audience a more intense and exciting narrative than any literary work, heralding his inquiry into the sea and water. The exhibition runs until the 23rd at Kukje Gallery Busan.

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