Kim Ryeong | MetaCanvas Gallery

Kim Ryeong is a designer and sculptor who majored in product design at Hongik University and completed a master’s program in furniture design at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in the United States. Having persistently engaged with wood as a material, Kim continues a wide range of work between craft and abstract sculpture, from wooden furniture to lively three-dimensional sculpture and relief. Borrowing the vitality inherent in wood and the neat, flowing lines of ceramics, Kim presents new works that hold the meaning of “life.” Modern viewers worn out by the stimulating race for speed can quietly contemplate Kim’s works, which nonetheless hold a strong vitality.

The theme running through all of Kim Ryeong’s work is “life (生).” Life is revealed through the material of wood, line, and the form of ceramics. Wood, first of all, is the main material of all of Kim’s works and draws attention as a symbolic subject that holds vitality. To the artist, a tree is a living being that lived its own life. Wood that comes into Kim’s hands with its life drained away goes through a process of reworking and is given a new life as an artwork. Through this process Kim breathes a soul into it and seeks to use it as a metaphor for human life, as an act of recording one’s own life. In other words, the process of carving the wood and drawing out the form is both a way of finding the life that dwells in the material and a way of making the meaning of “life” visible.

Biography

Education

2014 MFA in Furniture Design, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), USA
2010 BFA in Product Design, Hongik University

Solo exhibitions

2023 Woven Line: Wooden Jars Holding Life (Gallery La Mer / Yein Gallery, Seoul / Wirye)
2023 Life Held on a Line (Gallery White One, Seoul)
2022 Holding Life on a Line: Jars Holding In;Yeon (Hyewon Art, Seoul)
2022 Woven Line: Filling the Surface with Line (N646, Seoul)
2022 Jars Holding Thoughts (BIKI Gallery, Seoul)

Group exhibitions

2023 5 Colors in Full Bloom (Gallery Colorbit, Seoul)
2022 The Joy of Sharing (Gallery Colorbit, Seoul)
2022 Autumn Moonlight II (Seoul Station 4th floor with Gallery 4th Avenue, Seoul)
2022 Autumn Moonlight I (Nine One Hannam with Gallery 4th Avenue, Seoul)
2022 Small Pictures Exhibition (BIKI Gallery, Seoul)
2019 Cheongju International Craft Biennale (MMCA, Cheongju)
2018 June Love Blooms (Hoon Gallery, Seoul)
2017 Object in Space (Make Gallery, Seoul)
2017 Curated Six-Person Exhibition (U.H.M Gallery, Seoul)
2016 Furniture We Didn’t Know (Geum Bo-seong Art Center, Seoul)
2016 Youth Artists Three-Person Exhibition (Goyang City Hall Gallery, Goyang)
2014 WANTED Design Exhibition (NYC, USA)
2014 Triennial Show (Woods-Gerry Gallery, RI, USA)

Art fairs

2023 The Grand Art Fair (Shilla Hotel, Seoul)
2022 Seoul Art Show 2022 (COEX, Seoul)
2022 IAAS Incheon Asia Art Show 2022 (Songdo Convensia, Incheon)
2022 Bank Art Fair Seoul (InterContinental Seoul COEX, Seoul)
2022 Seoul Hotel Art Fair (InterContinental Seoul COEX, Seoul)
2021 DAEGU ART FAIR 2021 (EXCO, Daegu)
2021 Bank Art Fair Seoul (InterContinental Seoul COEX, Seoul)
2021 AHAF Asia Hotel Art Fair Busan 2021 (Park Hyatt Busan, Busan)
2021 PLAS 2021 (COEX, Seoul)
2019 Seoul Design Festival (SDF, Seoul)
2017 Seoul Art Show (COEX, Seoul)