KwanYoung KIM (金官泳 Republic of Korea, b.1976) is an abstract artist who uniquely explores the unconscious and inner world, focusing on visually expressing human memories and emotions. Although he majored in metal sculpture design, he developed a deep interest in fine art around the time of his graduation. His experiences in Italy were pivotal in deepening his artistic exploration, where he was particularly influenced by Willem de Kooning's free lines and forms, leading him to be captivated by the aesthetics of formlessness.
KIM's art approaches the canvas not as a flat surface but with a perspective that adds layers to visualize an infinite world. By using an infinite palette of colors, he captures the world of the unconscious, creating and erasing fragments of memory to amplify the emotional resonance of formlessness. His smooth and serene surfaces embody his unique simplicity, while the synesthetic effect of the empty spaces allows a more complete visualization of the unconscious. He continues to explore the unconscious world through various materials and techniques, aiming to offer new inspiration to those living in modern society.
KIM is growing as a prominent artist, gaining attention through major international art fairs such as Art Taipei and Beijing Dangdai, and showcasing his art on global stages including Italy, Taiwan, Singapore, and China.
In the same time and space as us, who live days by gaining memories, there also are people who lose their memories. Even the person who has lost most of what we call memory unconsciously heads somewhere, eye contact with somebody, and touches something. Watching a dearest person losing memory, artist Kim Kwan Young dreamed of the hope of bringing back those memories by giving the shape to pieces of unconsciousness. Consciousness and unconsciousness interact with each other and produce numerous pieces of memory that are joined and grouped together, or scattered in smaller pieces to idealize the memory and overlay it with others, or sometimes cover it with opaque shrouds. No one’s memory is perfect. In this age, when even AI(Artificial Intelligence) expands its own memory, such imperfection distinguishes humans from machines and it leaves arts as human territory. Kim painted such unconscious actin onto the canvas he faces every day. After hours of considering, one dot is stamped and a huge area is painted in just a few seconds, vortex pilled up by meticulous calculations, and one side covers or reveals the other. these unconsciousness codes, which are abstractly translated without the involvement of any specific forms, remind viewers of some common emotions and stimulate memories in their respective depths. There now is something next to Kim who has been working on a series of tasks over the past years that adds memory at an uncountable rate instead of someone who has been losing his or her memory. These changes in the environment change Kim’s unconsciousness, and such unconsciousness is reflected in both the color and energy of the brush touch of his work. For Kim Kwan Young, Painting is the way of finding lost memories in unconsciousness and identifying his other-self. We hope viewers have some time to recall their lost memories through Kim’s works.