Kim, Hee soo

▲Greeting, 2011 (168x168cm, oil on canvas)

▲Face, 2011 (91 x 61 cm, oil on canvas)

▲Chuck, 2011 (56 x 71cm, oil on canvas)

▲Boy on Horseback, 2008 (102 x 76cm, oil on canvas)

▲City Hooker, 2008 (152 x 122cm, oil on canvas)

Hee-Soo Kim: A Happiness Verging on Joy

Hee-Soo Kim was educated in Korea, but has made his home in Union City, New Jersey, close to New York City, for a long time. He epitomizes, both in his work and in his person, the artist as free spirit, someone for whom the world is entirely delightful. In his paintings, which more than a few of us would characterize as naive or outsider art, we see an ebullient enthusiast at work; the happiness in his art is palpable and more than likely underscored by Kim’s rough, seemingly untutored style. Yet we know that Kim has made a choice to work as if he were unskilled; in fact, his abilities are not in question (Kim earns a living doing highly developed figurative drawings of tourists in the center of New York). He has a flair for the comic, nearly surrealist creation of basic forms, which he imbues with remarkable intensity and intense happiness, verging on joy.

The humorous, caricatured figures and forms we regularly see in Kim’s art present an innocence that appears untouched by modern and contemporary influences or by the market. His ingenuousness is unforced and genuine. In ‘Empire Dog‘, a woman dressed in a polka dot dress or leopard skin, wearing fishnet stockings and red high-heeled shoes, stands in the middle of the road. She is flanked on either side by buildings, while the sky is painted an angry, apocalyptic orange. Because the work has been painted in a naive style, a powerful experience results. The painting presents a streetwalker from the vantage point of a visionary stance; while we do not in fact know the details of her profession, we are certain that the figure embodies the rough-and-tumble, erotic energy of the city and its never-ending activities.

In another work, entitled Greetings, a cartoonish couple are portrayed as about to kiss. The man wears a baseball hat backwards; it is decorated with an American flag. He is touching the woman’s breast. By contrast, the woman wears a fanciful hat that looks like it is part of a bridge’s construction, while on either side of her, relatively high up on the painting, we see animals: a poodle on the left, and the head of a horse on the right. The numerals “1” and “2” also hang in the air of the orange background. The image, despite or perhaps because of its outlandish forms, is oddly affecting. In a deeper sense, the painting whimsically explores the moment when love becomes more than merely something declared, in fact turning physical. Kim is very good at eroticizing the world via a supposed simple presentation of life, yet his vision is highly compelling because of its directness. We happily witness his art’s mediation of reality through a rose-colored lens, which enables Kim to maintain a visionary innocence in his art. Other images by Kim recreate animals, sometimes more fanciful than real. It is extremely hard to project a believable naivete at this moment in time, given the art world’s market and penchant for cynicism, yet it is true enough that we need something to counter the spiritually jaded nature of the art world. Kim moves us, then, by his honesty and joyous images, which take the viewer to places hard to find in the twenty-first century.

Jonathan Goodman

Jonathan Goodman is a teacher and writer based in New York City; his specialties include sculpture and Asian and contemporary art. He is currently a professor at Pratt Institute.

Kim, Hee soo

1968 Born in Haenam, South Korea.

Live and work in the New York City metro area.

Education

1993 Graduated from the Painting Department, College of Fine Art, Chung Ang University, Korea

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2012 Gallery Soop, Seoul, Korea

2011 Gallery 1 & 9, Ridgefield, New Jersey

2009 Tenri Gallery, New York

2008 KCAF, Hangaram Art museum Seoul, Korea

2006 Space World Gallery, New York

2005 The Roger Smith Lab Gallery, New York

2001 Gallery Kavehaz, New York

2001 Solo Exhibition International Center, New York

Selected Duo Exhibitions

2008 Hee Soo Kim & Hee Sung Yang Mac Gallery, Pusan, Korea

2007 "Ing & Yang" Oms Gallery, New Jersey, New Jersey

2007 Hee Soo Kim & Sea Run Chun FGS Gallery, New Jersey, New Jersey

Selected Group Exhibitions

2009 “Chasing Dreams 56”, Gallery Maum, New York

2009 “Passion & Philosophy,” Yegam Gallery, Queens, New York

2009 “Faces & Facts,” Gallery Korea & Kim Po Gallery, New York

2007 “Object”, Hun Gallery, New York, New York

2007 “Korea NOW”, Hutchins Gallery, Long Island University, New York

2006 Oms Gallery, New Jersey, New Jersey

2005 East Here & Neo Latino, Gallery Korea, New York, New York

2005 “Connection”, Space World Gallery, New York, New York