The Drawing Room presents its summer exhibition, with a solo show of Justin Kim’s most recent paintings, titled “Questions of Travel: Recent Landscapes.” This exhibition will run from through Sept. 14. On Wednesday, Aug. 17, Justin Kim will be giving an Artist Talk at 5 p.m., followed by a public meet-the-artist reception until 7 p.m.
Justin Kim’s mixed media landscapes on paper draw from personal experience and specific locales of New York City, the coast of Cape Cod, the desert valley of California and Western Massachusetts. Grounded in the tradition of painting but with a contemporary sensibility and modern take on the American Landscape, Justin Kim’s unique style and draftsman-like technique renders carefully composed perceptions of the landscape with a simplicity and purity of jewel-like color intensity.
Kim’s paintings speak to the tension between technology and the artist’s hand and the dichotomies of artifice and reality. He states, “My aim is to represent perception as fluid yet tangible, where different pieces of information are drawn from our surroundings. Elements in the paintings are obviously fabricated (i.e. there’s no attempt to hide the process). At the same time, I’m working to create a believable world. This contradiction between synthetic and real reflects both the possibilities and limitations of what it means to be human: Although we’re rooted in seeing things from one physical spot, we experience the world expansively through projection, synthesis, imagination and discovery.”
“All the work is based – conceptually – on my commitment to nature, perception, personal experience and the historical evolution of visual media. My process is guided by personal idiom, intuitive choice and aesthetic sensibility. The goal is to make work that speaks to as large an audience as possible – challenging how we think about both shared and subjective experiences while furthering a larger conversation about painting as a reflection of the contemporary world.”
Born in Hartford, Kim received his B.A. from Yale and MFA from the American University in Washington, D.C. While at Yale, he also worked as an intern for the artist, David Hockney, an influence that still appears to be relevant to his work. Justin Kim has exhibited across the Northeast including: Denise Bibro, Brenda Taylor and Bowery Galleries in New York City, B.J. Spoke in Huntington, N.Y., The Oxbow Gallery in Northampton, Mass. and Manifest Gallery in Cincinnati. Recent grants and awards include a Working Artist Grant (2014) and Best in Show Award by Andrew Russeth, Senior Editor at the New York Observer for the Art of the Northeast Competition. His work has been included in Studio Visit and Fresh Paint Magazines. He was also one of 20 artists selected to represent New York City in Artist Portfolio Magazine. This spring he was a resident at The Studios at Mass MOCA in North Adams, Mass.
The Drawing Room Art Gallery is open Tuesday to Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is closed on Sundays and Mondays. For more information about this exhibit and the gallery’s events, contact 203-661-3737 or email info@thedrawingroom.com
