Printing with Ji Yong Kim

This week we printed a very tight registration for Ji Yong Kim‘s 3 color Risograph with soy-based red, purple and steel inks. This limited edition of 10 is not going to last long so don’t miss the Drums on Paper, Risograph Print Show on November 7, 6:30pm – 10:30pm at Glasshouse, Brooklyn

Let’s see what he says about his work:

“My work borrows languages of religious, sacred or spiritual images from diverse cultures. I am drawn to potential space of contemporary spirituality and contemplation within my painting. New forms and meaning created by fusing culturally different elements interests me tremendously. The central ‘figure’ with its bi-lateral symmetry becomes a substitute for our own physical body, and elaborate patterns and borders attempt to demarcate mental, metaphysical space.

I draw heavily elements from Southeast Asian Buddhist images. Many shapes and forms come from art and architectures of Myanmar, a country where I’ve spent my adolescent years. Hybrid cultural forms come together as a reflection of my upbringing and exposure to different countries. For example, temple design from Korea is merged with Linga, a Hindu symbol of fertility. Culturally specific and traditional use of decorative patterns and symmetry is a huge inspiration for me. Often in my works, stylized image of death and grotesqueness is juxtaposed with symbols of fertility and sex. Absurd cartoon violence of mutilation and distortion of displayed body within a painting mimics the gory images of Tibetan Buddhist paintings. The repeating motif of a splayed dog in my works started as a personal iconography, and overtime it had mutated and transformed itself.

I am attracted to visual elements of religious iconography throughout history, and how they can be applied towards contemporary painting. And within this context, I am continuously engaged in problems of ‘figure’ painting, and paintings of a body in particular. I aim to create a quasi-spiritual space, where a viewer can identify a bodily connection with the central element.”

You can find more about him and his work on jiyongkim.com