2019 LA Art Project 1: Whi Boo Kim, Gradual Transition

- Title : Whi Boo Kim, Gradual Transition
- Date : January 11 - January 26, 2019
- Opening Reception : Friday, January 11, 2019 at 7:00pm
- Place : Korean Cultural Center Los Angeles Art Gallery (2nd Floor) 5505 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90036
-Opening Reception Reservation : www.kccla.org/english/programs_reservation.asp
- Present : Korean Cultural Center LA
- More Information : Tammy Cho, KCCLA at 323-936-3014

The Korean Cultural Center Los Angeles proudly presents the first exhibition of 2019 LA Art Project, called "Whi Boo Kim, Gradual Transition" which will take place from Jan. 11th-26th, 2019 at the Korean Cultural Center Art Gallery, located at 5505 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles, Ca. 90036.

Since 2015, Korean Cultural Center has opened the art gallery to offer talented, professional artists an opportunity to show their work to the public, and this year’s program is called the . This year, Korean Cultural Center Los Angeles carefully selected 10 artists/groups from over 64 submissions.

Whi Boo Kim was born and raised in Korea. He graduated from Hong Ik University with a degree in Fine Art. He resides in Los Angeles as a Korean-American artist since 1975.
As you can see from the title, it will be a good opportunity to look into his progressively changed art style through over 30 works in this exhibition.

Critic and curator Peter Frank mentioned that Whi Boo Kim is a builder of paintings. Kim assembles his paintings and painted constructions not just out of distinct and contrasting areas, colors and materials, but out of complementary and dynamically counterposed shapes. In this sense Kim inherits directly from the geometric artists of a century ago; he thinks in clear contours and reasoned but dramatic compositions.

Kim's early abstract work symbolized the beginning of his artistic pursuit in the United States, wherein Kim, in his own words, asks "Who am I?" Unidentifiable masses of darkness, conflicts, anxieties, and alienation in, as Kim states, "a foreign land and culture" is reflected in Kim's early work. The Geo Series, which followed Kim’s early work and which has been part of Kim's work for the last 20 years, is motivated by the unidentifiable masses of Kim's early work.

As Kim's work has grown in complexity and physical presence over the last several years, it has embraced a wider variety of visual and informational experience, to the point where some of his works suggest diagrams, architectural renderings, maps, even games.

Whi Boo Kim embraces a variety of artistic modalities, from minimalism to expressionism, conceptualism to surrealism, gestural abstraction to pop. But not one style defines his art. Indeed, Kim's painting is as rich in its artistic references as it is in its references to the "real world." And given the substance and palpability of such work, it is clear that Kim has designed it to be part of the real world.

The exhibition is open to the public and the opening reception will be held on Friday, Jan. 11th, 2019 at 7:00p.m. at the KCCLA 2nd floor art gallery. If you are interested in attending the opening ceremony or for more information, please RSVP at www.kccla.org or call 323-936-3014.

* Gallery Open Hours : Mon-Fri 10am-5pm / Sat 10am-1pm
The gallery will be closed Saturday Jan.19 & Monday Jan.21, 2019