CI KIM: RAINBOW: Solo Exhibition

CI KIM, who grew up in Hoehyeon-dong, Seoul, still vividly remembers the rainbow he saw decades ago. He has long confessed that the mysterious colors of the brilliant rainbow, spread out against the brightly rising sun after the rain had stopped, have been the source of his artistic inspiration. Over the years, the rainbow has been transformed into abstract concepts such as dreams, hope, beauty, and art, which have driven his work and life in general. Recently, however, he has begun to focus on the colorful surface of the rainbow. Rather than having a clear purpose or intention, he seems to be fascinated by the colors themselves, savoring the joy each one brings. CI KIM faces a blank canvas, a carpet on the floor, or an empty box left over from use, and begins to layer colors onto them. Sometimes he depicts everyday objects or people, and at other times, he observes the natural movement and cracking that occur as he lets the colors flow, coagulate, spread and dry. The paintings, sculptures, photographs, and drawings on view in this exhibition are the results of CI KIM’s numerous efforts and experiments to find his own pictorial order in the feast of colors that bloom between light and darkness, captivated by them.

The photographs of rainy day landscapes displayed on the fourth floor of the exhibition hall are the result of the artist carrying a film camera and walking the streets for a long time to fleeting moments. The landscape of Jeju's rural roads spread out under the ash color sky, is so dark and desolate that it is hard to imagine a rainbow. It seems to illustrate the fact that only after a time of thunder, lightning, and suffering does a rainbow appear. The rainbow that inevitably blooms amongst the cascading waterfalls is the fruit of hard work against the harsh winds of life. This is certainly the attitude of KIM's artistic practice. The two opposite words that form the basis of his work are 'dream' and 'pain'. Seeing a rainbow reminds him of dreams, but he knows all too well, instinctively, that the path to dreams always involves pain. Over the past few years, CI KIM has continued to create intense and dark colored works using materials such as coffee, blueberries, carpets, and discarded objects, and the fact that words such as death, pain, and perseverance have repeatedly appeared in his works attest to this.

The large-scale paintings in this exhibition vividly demonstrate this instinctive attraction and impulse towards color. The existence of color, which opens a window to infinity and mystery, is what drives CI KIM's artistic impulses today and leads him to new imaginative worlds.