About
Artist Statement
Umji Kim (b. 1998) creates paintings, sculptures, and site-specific installations based on literary texts writes herself. These works are enacted as theatrical totalities, harmonized with exhibition lighting, carefully selected background music playlists, and audiences. The texts that serve as the foundation for such works reference fantastical beings, classical tragedies, folk religions, and legendary motifs. The themes that emerge in her stories and visual images—cynicism and irony, beauty and violence, fragility and sharpness—stem from her interest in dilemmas.
The characters in her works suffer from dilemmas that vary according to each piece—incomprehensible love, impossible transformation, uncomfortable coexistence, escape from reality—yet they do not suffer naively. They become pale portraits of struggling figures who foretell various life endings to audiences.
In this way, her work brings fictional scenes made from the choices we have missed or pursued to the here and now. This serves as a reimagined destiny that compels us to either be swept away by inevitability or resist it. In doing so, it asks what we can do from now on and cheers for the continuing life.
Kim has curated and participated in solo exhibitions such as "Twilight Zone" (00 of 00, 2023) and group exhibitions including "A Bird Without a Name" (Seoul Art Space Mullae, 2024) and "Bubbl-ing-Marbl-ing" (Incheon Art Platform, 2024).
Curriculum Vitae
Dates
Born 1998, Seoul, South Korea
Lives and works in Seoul, South Korea
Education
2021-2024 MFA Art & Culture, Korea University, Seoul, South Korea
Dissertation title: “Staging Texts: A Framework for Visual Art Expression Based on Theatrical Enactment”
2017-2021 BA Fine Art, School of Art and Design, Korea University, Seoul, South Korea
2022 Exchange student in University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Solo Exhibitions
May. 2024
Rituals, Annpak Space, Seoul, South Korea
Oct. 2023
Twilight Zone, 00 of 00, Seoul, South Korea
Group Exhibitions
Jun. 2024
A Bird Without Name, Seoul Art Space Mullae, Seoul, South Korea
Mar. 2024
Bubbl-ing Marbl-ing, Incheon Art Platform, Incheon, South Korea
Dec. 2023
WESS Exhibition / Publication, 2023, Rasun Library, Seoul, South Korea
Dec. 2022
Waiting Room, Suchi, Seoul, South Korea
Dec. 2021
Kyungdong Market Research Project: So I will eat you!🍴, Project Miraeyutong, Seoul, South Korea
Workshop/Program
July. 2023
Dividing the Pie, 00 of 00, Seoul, South Korea
Dec. 2021
Kyungdong Market Research Project: So I will eat you!, Project Miraeyutong, Seoul, South Korea
Publication
Aug. 2025
Selected Artist for “Artist of the Month (AOM Project)” 2025, PAI_32, London, UK
Dec. 2023
Selected Artist for “WESS Exhibition / Publication” 2023, Rasun Library, Seoul, South Korea
Teaching & Advising
Mar. 2021-Feb. 2022
Research & Teaching Assistant
School of Art and Design, Korea University
- Contemporary Painting Workshop(English), 1st Semester, 2021
- Individual Creative Art Studio, 1st Semester, 2021
- Basic Media Study(English), 2nd semester, 2021
- Independent Study(English), 2nd semester, 2021
Award & Scholarship
2025 Gyeonggi Arts Support 2nd Competition (Youth Artist Independence Preparation Grant) 2025, Gyeonggi Cultural Foundation
Research Assistant (A) Scholarship 1st Semester, 2021; 2nd semester, 2021, Korea Univeristy, South Korea
Research Assistant (A) Scholarship 1st Semester, 2021; 2nd semester, 2021, Korea Univeristy, South Korea
Administrative Assisstant Scholarships 2nd semester, 2022; 1st semester, 2021, Korea University, South Korea.
Special Scholarship, 1st semester, 2020, Korea Univeristy, South Korea
Alumni Association Scholarship, 1st semester, 2020, Korea Univeristy, South Korea