b. 1968, South Korea

Minouk Lim Biography

Working across sculpture, performance, video, installation and public intervention, the South Korean artist Minouk Lim (임민욱) is best known for exploring themes around the human costs of modernisation and state violence. Drawing from her personal life and expanding into wider societal issues, Lim investigates the crossroads between the individual and the community, the native and the immigrant, the past and the present.

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Lim's works attempt to unearth the underbelly of modernisation, particularly the unrelenting destruction and redevelopment that began in the 1970s in South Korea. New Town Ghost (2005), one of her most iconic works, documents a drive through the streets of Yeongdeungpo. A district in Seoul that the artist had been living in at the time, Yeongdeungpo was selected for massive urban renewals. As a result, the government evicted its residents to make room for high-rising apartments and new facilities. In her protest against the resulting demolition of homes and displacement of families, Lim films a slam poet who repeatedly shouts, 'I have nowhere to go. I'm a new-town ghost.'

The history of such state violence in South Korea is a frequent theme in Lim's works. With the onset of the Korean War, the South Korean government under Seung Man Lee sanctioned a massacre against a civilian population that was suspected of cooperating with the North. Three decades later, the military dictator Doohwan Chun labeled the protesters in Gwangju as communists and ordered them to be slaughtered in what came to be known as the May 18 Democratic Uprising. Both histories are seldom talked about in South Korea today and constitute a past that many people wish to forget.

Lim collaborates with survivors and families of victims of both atrocities to increase visibility and to remind her audience that such histories are hardly over. The Hole-in-Chest Nation (2014), which presents human remains made of wood, metal, and synthetic hair, references the broader history of state violence in South Korea. In Navigation ID (2014)—a performance at the 10th Gwangju Biennial—the artist commemorated the May 18 Democratic Uprising by inviting families of the victims to lead funeral processions by travelling in a bus alongside a container carrying the human remains. Lim later reused the recorded footage of Navigation ID in another work, From X to A (2015), which juxtaposed the experiences of children who lost their parents in the Korean War civilian massacres with those of parents who lost their children in the Democratic Uprising.

Lim studied Painting at Ewha Womans University in Seoul and completed her studies at École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris in 1994. Now living and working in Seoul, she has exhibited internationally in Centre Pompidou, Paris (2017); Portikus, Frankfurt (2015); PLATEAU Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul (2015); Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis (2012); and Artsonje Centre, Seoul (2008), among others. Her works have featured in numerous international exhibitions, notably Sydney and Taipei Biennials (2016); Gwangju Biennial (2014, 2008, 2006); Paris Triennale (2012); Liverpool Biennial (2010); and Istanbul Biennial (2007). In 2007 Lim received the 7th Hermès Foundation Missulsang Prize.

Sherry Paik | Ocula | 2018

Minouk Lim
featured artworks

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Confluence V by Minouk Lim contemporary artwork painting
Minouk Lim Confluence V, 2023 Acrylic spray paint, pastel on hanji
93 x 63.5 cm
97 x 65 x 3.5 cm (incl frame)
BB&M
Ici, Narra by Minouk Lim contemporary artwork painting, sculpture, textile
Minouk Lim Ici, Narra, 2024 Printed fabric, acrylic paint on wooden panel
162 x 130.5 x 3 cm
164.2 x 132.4 x 4.5 cm (incl frame)
BB&M
Le Revenant by Minouk Lim contemporary artwork painting, sculpture
Minouk Lim Le Revenant, 2024 Terracotta powder, cuttlefish bones, acrylic paint, urethane resin on wooden panel
65.5 x 53.3 x 3 cm
67.5 x 55.5 x 4.5 cm (incl frame)
BB&M
Enwinded Score by Minouk Lim contemporary artwork sculpture
Minouk Lim Enwinded Score, 2022 Wood cane, cuttlebone, metal plate
180 x 34.3 x 20.3 cm
Tina Kim Gallery Request Price & Availability
Oga-ri echo by Minouk Lim contemporary artwork painting, textile
Minouk Lim Oga-ri echo, 2023 Acrylic on military blanket
233 x 159.4 x 5.1 cm
Tina Kim Gallery Request Price & Availability
Currahee - Stand Alone NO.28 by Minouk Lim contemporary artwork painting
Minouk Lim Currahee - Stand Alone NO.28, 2023 Acrylic, spray, pastel on military blanket
253 x 157.5 x 5.1 cm
Tina Kim Gallery Request Price & Availability
Currahee-Stand Alone by Minouk Lim contemporary artwork painting, textile
Minouk Lim Currahee-Stand Alone, 2023 Military blanket, acrylic paint, spray paint
188.8 x 139 cm
Tina Kim Gallery Request Price & Availability
Draft by Minouk Lim contemporary artwork painting, drawing
Minouk Lim Draft, 2022 Crayon on paper
109.2 x 79.7 cm
Asia Art Archive
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Minouk Lim
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Minouk Lim in
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