KIM TAEHO

The exhibition, Internal Rhythm, titled after his most recent series, features twelve abstract paintings exploring the composition of geometric images through changes in colours and rhythmic textures. Employing a laborious and careful process of layering heavy brushstrokes on canvas - as much as over twenty times - bulky masses of acrylic paint is built up before being shaved away, revealing a multitude of vibrant colours hidden beneath the seemingly monochromatic surface. In the process, not only is vitality and resonance created by the rhythm of the colours but also countless visual spaces are formed within the intersecting gridded lines: each cell is like a beehive, producing its own life in the realm, endlessly extending and multiplying.

Kim’s seemingly ironic and relentless process of adding and removing material echoes the Greek mythical figure of Sisyphus, who was consigned to an eternity of rolling a stone up the mountain only to watch it roll down again - ad infinitum. However, his efforts are not futile, instead, they manifest splendid and captivating creations, displaying an aesthetic rhythm of moderation and order through the void and the filled, the colourful and the monochrome. The thick layers of paint on the two-dimensional surface which develops a sculptural quality also serves as his attempt to transverse the painting format into the three-dimensional. Seemingly static and flat in colour, Kim’s works nudge the audience to look again, and upon closer inspection, notice the vast colours embedded within which becomes animated with shifting viewing angles.

Art critic Kim Bok-young has referred to Kim’s methodology as a “coexistence of concealing and revealing.” He does not reveal all at once but prefers to show only a small part of himself: a small moment of conflict within the internal rhythm of the artist. Each primal colour represents a projection, a reflection, and anticipation. The solid, firm form is in stark contrast with the delicate inner rhythm of Kim’s work, and it is exactly this rich contradiction, this hollow yet concrete existence, that speaks to the mystery of life.Internal Rhythm will be Kim Tae-Ho’s second solo exhibition in Singapore following his four-decade-long career.