EUNKYUNG KIM
Kim Eunkyung paints on porcelain. Her images are drawn in ceramic pigment onto bisque-firedwhite porcelain panels and fired a second time above 1,250°C, so that the picture is fused intothe surface rather than laid on it. She works mainly in reduction firing and builds texturefrom powdered iron oxide, which gives the trees and branches in her panels a grain close to rawtimber. Colour on porcelain does not behave as it does on paper or canvas, and the effects thatemerge from the firing are part of what the finished work is.
Kim studied applied painting at Seoul National University of Science and Technology andcompleted an MA in Ceramic Painting at the Graduate School of Convergence Arts, SejongUniversity. Her earlier panels drew on the vocabulary of Korean literati and folk painting —lotus, peony, moon jars, landscape — carried from ink on paper to a surface that is hard,reflective and permanent.
Her recent work centres on the long-tailed tit, a small white-headed songbird found acrossKorea and a cooperative breeder: males, fathers and elder brothers among them, feed and raisethe brood alongside the mother. These are birds too small to get through a winter on theirown, and they live by feeding and guarding one another.
Kim gives each of them a form of Joseon-era headwear: the myeollyugwan, the ikseongwan,the gat, the jokduri. Such forms once announced rank, office and gender at a glance. Inher panels they read closer to something a family places on one another. The father has acrown, the mother has one, the child has one. The crowns do not rank them. Each marks whatthat person gives to the household.
The character 福 carries the same sense in her work. It appears on the bokjumeoni, theembroidered pouch given as a wish for a good life, and it has long been understood as aportion granted to one person. Kim treats it as something passed between people. Her birds sitamong pouches, moon jars and roof tiles, all of them objects of the house, and they are in themiddle of handing it to one another. A good life, in these paintings, is not something aperson arrives at alone. It is completed by a family together.
Kim lives and works in Gapyeong, Gyeonggi-do. She is Vice President and Secretary General ofthe Korea Ceramic Painting Association.
Education
MA, Ceramic Painting, Graduate School of Convergence Arts, Sejong University, Seoul
BFA, Department of Applied Painting, College of Design and Art, Seoul National Universityof Science and Technology (SeoulTech), Seoul
Solo Exhibitions
- 2026 — Happiness Delivered, Arisu Gallery, Seoul, 10–16 June
- 2026 — Invited solo exhibitions at Yein Gallery and Gallery Samcheonggak, Seoul
- 2025 — Song of Happiness, The Star Gallery, Seoul, 28 May–2 June
- 2021 — Lotus and Waterdrops, Arisu Gallery, Seoul, 27 October–2 November
- 2020–2025 — Four invited solo exhibitions at Arisu Gallery, Cafe Gallery Dam and Papa Brot
- 2019–2025 — Four solo exhibitions at The Star Gallery, Gallery Ruben and Arisu Gallery
Group Exhibitions
- 2025 — Two-person invited exhibition, Arisu Gallery, Seoul
- 2023 — The World Held by Ceramics, with Kim Mikyung, Gallery Ruben, Seoul,27 December 2023–2 January 2024
- 2019–2025 — Nine invited group exhibitions at Hankyung Gallery, Hyehwa Art Center, ArisuGallery, Dandi Gallery, Blue Gallery and Gallery Ruben, Seoul
- 10 Young Artists, Minu Museum of Modern Art (selected)
- Korea–China Exchange Exhibition, Insadong, Seoul and Beijing
- Annual group exhibitions with Cheongsaekhoe and Seojoye
Art Fairs
- 2026 — Passion Paris, Paris
- 2026 — BANK Art Fair, SETEC, Seoul
- BANK Art Fair, Suwon (invited artist, Yein Gallery)
- Art Fair Daegu, Daegu
- Seoul Art Salon, Seoul
- International Blue Art Fair
- Unknown Vibes
- 2025 — World Art Expo, Seoul (selected artist)
- 2024 — World Art Expo, Seoul (invited)
Professional
- Vice President and Secretary General, Korea Ceramic Painting Association
- Full member, Korean Fine Arts Association
- Member, Cheongsaekhoe
- Member, Seojoye
30 x 20 cm
Dimensions variable Seoul Art Now Request Price & Availability
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