Kim Yong-Ik was born in Seoul in 1947 and graduated from Hongik University in 1980 with an MFA in Painting. He served as a professor of Painting at the Arts and Design College in Gachon University (former Kyungwon University) from 1991 to 2012. In 1999, Kim co-established Art Space Pool (former Alternative Space Pool), one of the first alternative art spaces in Korea, and served as its representative member from 2004 to 2006. As an enduring critic, writer, and an artist for the past four decades, Kim has been working in various contexts spanning modernism, the Minjung art, land art, and public art, continuously questioning his practice and art. Following his successful retrospectives at Ilmin Museum of Art (2016) as well as Spike Island, Bristol and Korean Cultural Centre UK, London (2017), Kim's oeuvre has been garnering increasing attention from the international audience. The extensive practice of Kim's career will also be presented at Art Basel Hong Kong Kabinett sector from March 29 to 31, 2018.
Read MoreKim Yong-Ik has held solo exhibitions at numerous institutions including I Believe My Works Are Still Valid, Spike Island, Bristol, and Korean Cultural Centre UK, London (2017), Closer... Come Closer..., Ilmin Museum of Art, Seoul (2016), Timidly Resisting the No-Pain-Civilization, Art Space Pool, Seoul (2011), and Kumho Museum of Art, Seoul (1997). Selected group exhibitions include the 5th Yokohama Triennale (2014), SeMA Gold 2012: Hidden Track at Seoul Museum of Art (2012), Nature and Peace, Geumgang Nature Art Biennale (2010), After the Grid, Busan Museum of Art (former Busan Museum of Modern Art; 2002), The 1st Korean Young Artists Biennial, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (1981), the 13th São Paulo Art Biennial (1975), and a series of Independants exhibitions at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art from 1974 to 1979. His works are in the permanent collections of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea; Busan Museum of Art; Seoul Museum of Art; Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art; Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles among many others.
Text courtesy Kukje Gallery.