Minjung Kim is a South Korean artist who explores the connection between hand gestures, the body, repetition, and the mind, through the use of watercolor, ink, and the principles of calligraphy. She is best known for her ink paintings, as well as her subtle formal compositions on layered paper. Committed to re-interpreting traditional Korean aesthetics, Kim employs a process-based organization of her thoughts, problems, and whims in each of her artworks.

Kim chooses materials that, given their nature, allow her to explore and alter their states. In most of her works, Kim uses hanji traditional Korean paper, handmade and produced from the inner bark of the paper mulberry, a tree native to Korea called “dak” that grows in the Rocky Mountains.

The hanji paper is grouped and glued in layers, which can then be torn or burned, allowing us to see the network of paper fibers that make up Kim’s pieces. The use of paper is a dialogue and a synchronization between body and matter for the artist. Always aware of her own physiognomy— its scale, strength and delicacy —, Kim manipulates and modifies the hanji paper, a material that can be easily destroyed while being a strong and long-lasting.