Myungjin Kim
Myungjin Kim (b.1975) received her MFA in ceramics from Seoul National University and moved to Los Angeles, where she has been living and working ever since. She was fascinated by the translucent, cold white color of ceramics and the delicate details that can be expressed in the fine texture of clay. But she realized that the more she understood the material, the cold and the sharp nature of the material came to the fore. In her recent work, she began to work with low-relief vessels using terracotta techniques so that the soft texture of the clay could be conveyed to the viewer through sculptures with dynamic structures. Although the artist has lived in the United States for many years, the origins of her work can be traced back to Korean folk tales. Interpreting the conceptual part of Hwa Jo-do (Korean traditional flowers and birds painting) according to the time period and the artist’s background, her works contain shamanistic concepts to protect the home and family from external bad spirits and to wish for a happy life, such as the owl symbolizing longevity, wisdom, and wealth, and cycads with strong vitality. Viewers have taken notice of the artist’s 21st century interpretation of her three-dimensional style of painting, in which three-dimensional figures are sculpted on a flat surface, and her work is now held by numerous private collectors, including the Resnick Collection in Los Angeles, the Pijuta Collection at the Columbus Museum of Art, and the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art in Oregon.