NOMAL LIFE_ BE NORMAL AND PEOPLE

Artist Heesoo Kim

Exhibition Raises Questions about Normal Life Lost in Pandemic

 “NORMAL LIFE” Depicted in Paintings, Ceramics and Installations

Gallery Afternoon is proud to host NORMAL LIFE: Be Normal and People—a solo exhibition of Korean artist Heesoo Kim (b. 1984)—from September 1 to November 28, 2021. 

Based on his careful observations of everyday life, Kim explores and conveys various aspects of human existence using bold colors and uninhibited lines. Under the key theme of “Normal Life,” his works continue to raise questions about what constitutes an ordinary life. His aim is share a renewed discourse on “ordinary” and “everyday” elements, which have been threatened and undermined amidst the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic.  

After majoring in media design at university, Heesoo Kim worked in the field of image and photography. Around the age of thirty, he set off on a new journey to become a full-time artist. His portrait paintings soon caught the eyes of art aficionados. The artist has since established his own creative style by venturing into the realm of three-dimensional art encompassing woodblocks, ceramics, and sculptors. 

This new two-part solo exhibition can be said to be the most vivid and extensive exploration of his best-known series NORMAL LIFE. Over the course of three months, visitors will have a chance to encounter his canvas paintings of various sizes as well as watercolor paintings, sculptors and installations.

Part One (September 1 ~ October 17) presents some sixty canvas paintings under the sub-theme of “Be Normal”, thereby offering a rare opportunity to see the artist’s representative works, which are imbued with joys and sorrows underneath the façade of everyday indifference. Some of the selected works are as large as 193.9 x 130.3 centimeters. 

The images of people with their eyes closed or fixed somewhere else evoke diverse senses, memories, emotions and imagination. As a result, Kim’s works urge us to recognize our own reflections in them, and thus strike a chord with a wider audience. Furthermore, Kim foregrounds his characters against abstract backgrounds. Each character captured on canvas with such bold lines and subtle colors reveals their own condensed narrative. 

Part Two (October 23 ~ November 28) showcases his watercolor paintings and large-scale installations collected under the theme of “People.” In particular, Kim’s latest watercolor works carrying humorous and light-hearted portraits of some 100 people from various walks of life serve as a link between the two parts. 

The exhibition is further complimented by a large installation embodying Kim’s atelier in Yangsu-ri. During the exhibition period, the artist will give live drawing performances in a pop-up format.