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Sky Kim

Sky Kim

Sky Kim

New York-based artist Sky Kim (b. Seoul, South Korea) is known for her meticulously patterned, incantatory watercolors. Her paintings operate as optical illusions inviting the viewer into a meditative state of increased self-awareness and tranquility. Kim creates work from a place of stillness with meditation as her guide. “I have to raise my vibrations to the highest level,” she says of her process. “I put myself in that state so that I am very close to my highest self.” From this place, she creates a complexity of repetitive patterns that appear to undulate and pulse if the viewer stares at them long enough. In her words, “a lot of my viewers experience some kind of energy coming from the center of my work. They feel vibrations.” 

Themes of reincarnation and ritual are prevalent in her work. Through the act of gazing, she attempts to reconnect her viewers to their sense of blank slate perfection, something that, according to the philosophy of reincarnation, we lose after we’re born. She speaks of one clean, unbroken human energy that emanates from this place of oneness. “I want them to realize that we are all together. One big tapestry.” She also draws inspiration from sacred geometry (an ancient and spiritual mathematical language that undergirds certain aesthetics in nature and its development), because she believes that humans are ever-evolving; our lives and self-hoods expanding outwards, like the universe, rather than in a traditionally linear fashion. The ancient principles of sacred geometry, its logarithms and designs, help her to consider who we are as humans, and what we’re about - an essential inquiry at the heart of her work.

Born in Seoul, Korea, Kim attended Pratt Institute for her MFA. She is a recipient of the National Korean Art Competition Awards, a Pratt Institute Art Grant and Jersey City Art Council Grant. She has exhibited and participated in art fairs in major venues around the world, including the US, Denmark, UK, Mexico, Germany, Canada, and Australia and has been lecturing as a guest artist, panel and keynote speaker at universities and art conferences. Her work has received international critical acclaim in The Wall Street International, The Boston Globe, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Juxtapoz Magazine, The Korea Herald, Artlog and The Korea Daily, Artefuse and Arts Observer, and on WMBC-TV, and she was the subject of a profile in Forbes magazine in 2022. The artist lives and works in New York.

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SOLO & TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS

2019
‘Pulsating-Multiplied through Water’, Galleri Oxholm, Copenhagen, Denmark
‘Each One All’, 532 Gallery Thomas Jaeckel , New York, NY

2018
‘Expanding Space Time’, Korean Cultural Center/Embassy of the Republic of Korea, Washington DC
‘Divine Thread’, Filo Sofi Arts Gallery, New York, NY

2017
‘Pulse Art Fair Solo Show’, Miami Beach, FL
‘Sky Kim & Curtis Bartone’, PrattMWP Gallery in the Museum of Art, Utica, NY

2015
‘Quantum One’, St. Joseph’s University Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

2014
‘Mapping Out the Matrix’, Tinney Contemporary, Nashville, TN

2012
‘One Spirit, One Breath’, Haas Gallery, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, PA
‘Sacred Geometry’, Chashama Gallery, New York, NY

2011
‘Reiterate the Repeat’, Sheppard Gallery, University of Nevada, NV
‘Sea of SAMSARA’, Dalet Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
‘SAMSARA’, Earlville Opera House Arts Center, NY

2010
NARS Open Studios Visiting Artist, NARS Foundation, Brooklyn, NY

2008
‘Two Person Show’, Gallery Oms, Fort Lee, NJ

2002
Duck-won Gallery, Seoul, Korea

1998
‘Images of Beauty’, The Right Bank Gallery, New York
Dada Gallery, Seoul, Korea

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2021
‘K-Art Recollection’, Korean Cultural Center, Washington DC

2020
Art Miami/Context Art Miami Art Fair, Online/Miami, FL
Pinta Miami Art Fair, Online/Miami, FL
‘Fall Breeze’, 532 Gallery Thomas Jaeckel , New York, NY
‘Summer Loving’, 532 Gallery Thomas Jaeckel , New York, NY

2019
‘Cosmic Love’, The Drawing Rooms, Jersey City, NJ

2018
‘CONTEXT Art Miami Art Fair’, Miami, FL
‘Affordable Art Fair’, Hamburg, Germany
‘Fire in the Belly’, Burnette Gallery, Woodstock, NY
‘Spring Show 18’, Galleri Oxholm, Copenhagen, Denmark

2017
‘Truth’, BRIC, Brooklyn, NY
‘On Belonging and The Void Between’, Gallery Aferro, Newark, NJ
‘Personal Tesserac’, Spring/Break Art Show, New York, NY

2016
‘Rind’, Carrie Able Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
‘Beep International Painting Prize’, Elysium Gallery, Swansea Wales, UK 
‘Pin It Up’, The Drawing Rooms, Jersey City, NJ
‘Errand into The Maze’, Art House Productions, Jersey City, NJ
‘Beep International Painting Prize’, Elysium Gallery, Wrenxham Wales, UK      
‘On Site in 16 Cities’, Berlin Collective world tour exhibition, Berlin, Germany, Sydney, Australia

2015
‘EXIT Cartografía de la Creatividad’, The Museo De Arte De Sinaloa (Sinaloa Art Museum), Sinaloa, Mexico.
‘Working Artist’, Academic Gallery, Long Island City, NY
‘Asian Art 40 Years: Contemporary Views’, QCC Gallery, The City University of New York, NY

2014
‘Leaps into the Void: Shamanism, Meditation, Transcendence, Oblivion’, Garis & Hahn Gallery, New York, NY
‘The Draftsmen’s Congress’, The New Museum, New York, NY

2013
‘ASlAP’, Dumbo Art Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
‘Unsteady Ground’, City without Walls, Newark, NJ
‘Breaking Open’, Blank Space, Oslo, Norway

2012
‘GLAAD Art Auction’, Metropolitan Pavillion, New York, NY
‘DUMBO Arts Festival’, Brooklyn, NY
‘Subjective Objective’, Victory Arts Projects Art Center, City, NJ
‘Elements’, Art House Productions, Jersey City, NJ
‘Re-imagine Ourselves’, Yara’s Winter Festival of New Art, Ukrainian Institute, NY, NY

2011
‘Residue’, Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, MA
‘PIN-IT-UP’, Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, NJ
‘DUMBO Arts Festival’, Brooklyn, NY (September)
‘Homage to Morandi: Essence of Art’, Brain Factory, Seoul, Korea
‘Art: Gwangju’, Kimdaejung Convention Center, Gwangju, Korea
‘Evolution of Power Movements’, The Stoop Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

2010
‘Private Eyes’, I Made an Art Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
‘Multiplied Within’, Able Fine Art NY Gallery, NYC
‘Made from Earth’, Jersey City Art Fair, Jersey City, NJ
‘Ecstatic’, Curious Matter Gallery, Jersey City, NJ
‘Fuzzy Logic’, Thompson Gallery, The Cambridge School of Weston, MA
‘Oddly Alive’, The Troy Art Center, Troy, NY

2009
‘Subject to Change, Ox Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
‘The Post Party World’, Salon Ciel & Subdivision Art, Long Island City, NY
‘Fresh Asphalt’, Gallery Satori, NYC
‘Paintpresent’, Lexington Art League, Lexington, KY
‘The Sketchbook Project Tour’, Art House Gallery, Museum of Design Atlanta (Atlanta), 
Museum of Contemporary Art DC (DC), Laconia Gallery (Boston), Antena Gallery, Chicago
Art Source Gallery (Chicago), Soulard Art Market (St. Louis), 3rdWard (Brooklyn)

2008
‘Pot Shots at Hot Shots’, 3rdRail Studio, New Rochelle, NY
‘Starting Small’, Lana Santorelli Gallery, NYC

2007
‘New ‘07’ NurtureArt Ten Year Anniversary Exhibition, The Cue Art Foundation,NYC

2005
‘The Square Foot Show’, Art Gotham, NYC
‘Benefit Art Auction for New Orleans, Chi Gallery, Brooklyn, New York

2003
‘Brooklyn Express’, Injae Art Museum, Joenju University, Duck-won Gallery, Korea

2000
‘Forest of Humans & Forest of Paintings’, Kwangju Biennale 2000, Kwangju, Korea
‘The 14thKorean Art Competition’, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea

1999
‘Confluence of Cultures’, Gallery Korea, Pratt Manhattan Gallery, Shaffler Gallery, New York

1998
‘Objects & Photo’, Eklektikos Gallery, Phoenix, Arizona
‘People Place Things’, Galleria Boricua, NYC
‘Version 21’, Tunnel, NYC
‘La Grande Salon’, Ridged Street Gallery, NYC