Myung-Joo Kim
(1973)
Born in 1973 in Daejeon, the Korean artist Myung-Joo Kim (김명주) quickly started to study the art of ceramic. First in Korea, where she obtained a bachelor’s degree at the University of Hong-ik, before leaving for France. Shocked by a different aesthetic and by a feeling of the unknown, it is on her arrival in Europe that her artistic universe takes shape. In 2014, she leaves for Brussels and obtains a master’s degree in ceramics at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Visuels de la Cambre.
Before starting her work on clay, Myung-Joo puts her emotions on paper. Her lines are a raw reflection of the message she wants to convey. It is only when she is really satisfied with the drawing, that she begins to work on it in three dimensions, and the work comes to life thanks to her excellent technical mastery of enameling. Myung-Joo’s early works are based on plant forms inspired by her daily life.
Gradually, her artworks are freed from their simple representation and acquire an anthropomorphic aesthetic. Ceramics became a real medium of communication for Myung-Joo Kim, who then puts all her feelings in her works. It is through the material that the artist gets in touch with the other. These hybrid forms, very organic, represent herself facing the world, and her way of evolving in this universe, but also the human purpose facing the strong and free nature, reflecting a certain nostalgia.
This artistic language results particularly from her work on the feeling of not belonging to any place, of never really being “at home”. Living in another country made her aware of this feeling of being “a foreigner”, but it became more pronounced when she returned to Korea after many years, her country was no longer familiar to her. This quest for a “home” that doesn’t really exist is draining her work. This need to share, to express herself, and to belong is found in her sculptures.
“For the artist, ceramics is not a simple material. Beyond its material envelope, it is rather a kind of sensory organ. Her works are the result of a plurality of immaterial and universal factors. Myung-Joo Kim tries to convey the ambiguous feelings of jubilation and disarray that animate every human being. »
Sim Sang-Yong, art critic
In each of her exhibitions, Myung-Joo considers the sense of space created by the distance between her pieces, the resulting atmosphere is very important. Myung-Joo Kim uses the installation as a mise-en-scène to convey to the viewer what she wants to show.
Personal exhibitions
—2019 – « Playing Blind » Art Lounge, Temi Artist Residency, Daejeon, Korea
– « YesterdayKafka » Window Gallery Meme, Seoul, Korea
2018 – « FLOWING » Gallery Meme, Seoul, Korea
2017 – « Secret Faces » Ceramic lookie, ClayArch Gimhae Museum Cubic house, Korea
2013 – C’Bos, 13ème Carougeois Ceramic Trail, Carouge, Switzerland
2011 – Talents Opéra, Ateliers d’Art de France, Paris, France
2010 – « Thinking or Dancing » Circuits Céramiques (A.I.C), Territoires en movement, Galerie Ph.Gelot, Paris, France
2008 – « Hushigino morino sasayaki » Galerie Maronié, Kyoto, Japan
– « La Forêt et les étrangers » Galerie Ph.Gelot, Paris, France
2007 – « Mes mains murmurent ma terre… » Galerie Ph.Gelot, Paris, France
2004 – « Peintures sur faïence » Galerie Ph.Gelot, Paris, France
Public exhibitions
—PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
ARIANA Museum, Geneva, Switzerland
Museum of contemporary Ceramic Art, Shigaraki, Japan
Arctic Ceramic Centre, Posio, Finland
Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Visuels de la Cambre, Belgium
Groups exhibitions
—2020 – Théâtre Lappi, Rovaniemi, Finland
– Guozhong Ceramic Art Museum, Beizing, China
– « 십이방 » Palais de Seoul, Seoul, Korea
2019 – « Cabinet des Corps Exquis » ARIANA Museum, Geneva, Switzerland
– « Preview » Temi Artist Residency, Daejeon, Korea
2018 – « Portraits d’artistes » Musée de la faïence et de la céramique Malicorne, France
– « 도작가 » IANG Gallery, Seoul, Korea
– « Artefacts » Dorossy Salon, Seoul, Korea
– « Si Loins, Si Proches » La plus petite galerie du monde (OU PRESQUE) Roubaix, France
2017 – « LA CAMBRE ET LA CONSTRUCTION D’UNE MÉOIRE » La Cambre — Hôtel van de Velde, Brussels, Belgium
2016 – « Reload » ClayArch GImhae Museum, Korea
– « Artists’s Rooms » Jung-Dong Small Museum, Daejeon, Korea
– La 24ème de la Biennale Internationale de Céramique de Vallauris – Création contemporaine et céramique, France
– « Improvisation et Fermentation » Hong-ti Art Center, Busan, Korea
– « Le Rayon Vert » Triennale « Coups de coeur » des amis de la Cambre, Hôtel van de Velde, Brussels, Belgium
2015 – « Vivid Dream » ClayArch Gimhae Museum, Korea
– « Incertains genres » Musée Keramis, Louvière, Belgique
– « 12ème C14 » Salon de la céramique d’art contemporain, Paris, France
– « Objectif Terre» 18ème Biennale internationale de Céramique de Châteauroux, Châteauroux, France
– « ReMade » Cultur centrum’t Vondel, Halle, Belgium
2014 – The 4th Arctic Clay 2014 Exhibition, Arctic Ceramic Centre, Posio, Finland
– 11ème C14, Salon de la céramique d’art contemporain, Paris, France
– Ceramic Event VI, Ceramic Expo, Hotel Molière, Brussels, Belgium
– « Terra Terre » , Regerd sur la céramique contemporaine, Chapelle de Boondael, Brussels, Belgium
– TERRALHA – Exposition de primés de la jeune Céramique Européenne, Musée de la céramique Méditéranéenne, Saint Quentin la Poterie, France
2013 – 13ème Parcourt Céramique Carougeois, Carouge, Switzerland
– CONTRASTES, Salon Céramique contemporaine, Roubaix, France
