June, 2007Myung-Sik Kim’s recent work has explored the pathos of living in a here and now that
has overwhelmed and undermined a cherished past. This temporal tension is magnified by the changes brought about by modernization and urbanization: the rural village of Mr. Kim’s youth is unrecognizable today, its very existence as a separate village obliterated by the encroachment of the city which swallowed it whole. Of course, Mr. Kim recognizes that modernization does offer genuine comforts and conveniences. Yet, his art proposes that in the end it also diminishes our purity as human beings, by offering us a Faustian bargain that disconnect us from our own pasts. Mr. Kim’s visits back to the area where he was born cannot constitute a “return home” because there is no home for him to return to – a city block at the same latitude and longitude is no replacement for the fields of his memories, where he once caught grasshoppers and dragonflies with the friends of his youth.
The recognizable, yet nearly abstract flowers and cityscapes of Mr. Kim’s work question 
common notions of permanence and stability. What could be more solid than a house or a flower? What could be more stable than a city block or even a clear memory? Yet, at the same time, what could be less real than a present without a past, or a past without a present? Considerations of memory’s inevitable haziness and of an uncomfortable alienation even amidst the comforts of daily life intrude upon past and present, rural and urban, each real yet unreal in their own ways – as real and as unreal as the flora and architecture of Mr. Kim’s paintings.
Myung-Sik Kim was born in South Korea in 1950, and currently serves on the faculty of the Department of Fine Arts at Dong-A University, Busan, South Korea. He received his BFA in 1974 and his MFA in 1981, both from Choong-Ang University, Seoul. His work has been seen in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including recent shows at Victoria Gallery, Sydney (2003), Sun Gallery, Seoul (2005), Diaspora Vibe Gallery, Miami (2006), and Yin Xiang Gallery, Hangzhou, China (2006).
has overwhelmed and undermined a cherished past. This temporal tension is magnified by the changes brought about by modernization and urbanization: the rural 
common notions of permanence and stability. What could be more solid than a house or a flower? What could be more stable than a city block or even a clear memory? Yet, at the same time, what could be less real than a present without a past, or a past without a present? Considerations of memory’s inevitable haziness and of an uncomfortable alienation even amidst the comforts of daily life intrude upon past and present, rural and urban, each real yet unreal in their own ways – as real and as unreal as the flora and architecture of Mr. Kim’s paintings.
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