KIM Byoungho

KIM Byoungho (b.1974) works with a combination of metal and media to create sculptures and installations. He graduated from Hongik University College of Fine Arts in 2000 and studied art engineering for three years beginning in 2002 as a researcher at a National Research Laboratory designated by the Ministry of Science and Technology. Afterward, he began his career as an artist in earnest. Instead of traditional drawing methods, he meticulously plans his works with detailed design drawings and produces them within a thoroughly compartmentalized production system. To him, an art piece is similar to a product created by social consensus, such as norms, rules, and systems. KIM also shows an interest in the identity of the individual struggling within the societal system. As a modern person situated within contemporary social structures and environments, he replicates mechanical precision and seductive artistic actions, thereby demonstrating a paradoxical critical awareness.

 

The works of KIM are characterized by a massive central body from which narrow and long tubes extend in all directions or in a single direction, emphasizing a sleek sense of motion and the coldness of metal. The meticulously processed metal materials, designed and fabricated according to the artist's blueprints and components, follow the production methods of a mass production system, reflecting social structures such as customs, conventions, and norms. Additionally, some of KIM’s works introduces a unique world of sound sculpture by embedding circuits into the metal sculptures, which generate mechanical sounds. KIM subtly integrates restrained mechanical sounds into the works, with the sound delicately flowing in a way that does not interfere with the form, maintaining simplicity and slowness in its size and speed. The energy emanating from these sculptures flows between material and immaterial, between the visual and the auditory, creating a force that overwhelms the space.

 

KIM has held ten solo exhibitions, including The Climax (K11 Art Museum, Shenyang, China, 2022), Enchantment (ARARIO GALLERY,  Shanghai, China, 2018), Invisible Object (SOMA Museum of Art, 2010), and Two Silences (Cultural Department of Frankfurt, Germany, 2009). Additionally, he has participated in over 100 group exhibitions both domestically and internationally, such as the Mediated Memory Project (Songgwangsa, Suncheon, 2016), Jingan International Sculpture Project (Shanghai, China, 2012), and Korean Eye (Saatchi Gallery, London, 2012). KIM's works are part of the collections of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Korea), Amorepacific Museum of Art (Korea), the Cultural Department of Frankfurt (Germany), Seoul National University Museum of Art (Korea), Government Complex (Korea) , Panlong Tiandi (China), New World Development (Hong Kong), and Hyundai Motor Company (Korea), among others.