Sung Hwan Kim, photo: Elizabeth Baker Sung Hwan Kim
Sung Hwan Kim (1975, South Korea) lives and works in New York.
He studied architecture at Seoul National University, followed by a BA in Mathematics and Art at Williams College, Williamstown (2000). He completed a Master of Science in Visual Studies at MIT and a residency at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam (2004–2005).
In his practice, Sung Hwan Kim often assumes the role of storyteller to interpret history and incorporate ineffable ideas and emotions. Through his distinctive method of intertwining video, music, storytelling, and sculpture within the gallery space, Kim has developed a unique narrative approach to migration, immigration, translation, and regeneration. The installations are performance sites and film sets, where dream-like videos and performances meet and where feelings become reliable sources for understanding the world. Over the past two decades, Kim has been producing lyrical multimedia installations, films, and performances that merge the mythological and the everyday.
Kim participated in the 57th Venice Biennale and had solo exhibitions at MoMA (2021); DAAD Galerie (Berlin, 2018); Artsonje Center (Seoul, 2014); the Tanks at Tate Modern (London, 2012); Kunsthalle Basel (2011); Queens Museum (New York, 2011); Haus der Kunst (Munich, 2010), Framer Framed (Amsterdam 2023), Van Abbemuseum (Eindhoven 2023-2024).
During his residency and open studio project Overhauled Stories (2023) at Framer Framed in Amsterdam, he revisited some of his previous works being part of the collection of the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven. In the Room (2006-2012), first conceptualised in the Netherlands after his residency at the Rijksakademie, Amsterdam. Over the course of 56 days visitors are welcomed to witness Kim’s in-process approach of repairing, reconfiguring, and reframing, as a comprehensive overhaul of all the subjects the artist has evolved beyond. Overhauled Stories was a prelude to Sung Hwan Kim’s solo exhibition Protected by roof and right-hand muscles (2023-2024) at the Van Abbemuseum.
Exhibitions
