Korean Ceramic Art: Kim Jeoung Bum 김정범

Sitting in Kim Jeoung Bum’s studio with the recorder running it seems natural to slip into a melange of French and English. If a word or phrase interrupts the flow in one language a switch to the other seems to keep everything going. This reflects the deep influence that 5 years of work and study in Paris left on Kim Jeoung Bum. The tendency for his work to be eclectic and a propensity for the use of materials other than clay may have been their from the start but his interaction with other students at the Ecole Nationale de Beaux Arts and other artists in the communal atelier where he worked certainly reinforced his tendencies.

All of this talk of Paris takes us a little beyond the beginning of the story so perhaps we should start with the small boy in Seoul who dreamed of making things and spent his days building in the sand. His father was dead set against his desire for an artistic career, but Kim Jeoung Bum managed to pass the examination and enter the art school of his choice, Hongik University. He received both his BFA and MFA from Hongik before flying off to Paris with his new wife, a fellow Hongik graduate. Why Paris? Well he had flipped a pen to choose between studying in Europe or the United States and fate (or luck?) had chosen Europe. Within Europe, Paris seemed central and interesting and it was for Kim Jeoung Bum the city where modern art was born. So it was in Paris that he refined the body of work that he had developed at Hongik under the influence of his mentor, Shin Sang Ho.

His talent for sculpture has lead him to work in concrete and resin besides various claybodies. Because he values the ideas that his sculptures are trying to convey more than the materials that they are made of, he feels that he can use anything which advances his concept. Although he enjoys the responsiveness of clay and the inviting surfaces that are so readily obtainable, Kim Jeoung Bum thinks that he may experiment with many more materials and may even pursue video and soundwork as a way to complete his installations in the future.

EDUCATION

M.F.A., Hongik Univesity, Seoul, SK

B.F.A., Hongik UniversityInvitation Student at Ecole National Superieure des Baux-arts de Paris, Paris, France

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2004 TOPO HAUS, Seoul, SK

2004 HB Gallery, Daejeon, SK

2001 Kusan Art Project, Gyeonggi-do, SK

1998 Kepco Plaza Gallery, Seoul, SK

1995 THO Art Space, Seoul, SK

1995 KOUKI Gallery, Paris, France

1994 GADARTE Gallery, Firenze, Italy

1987 HOU Gallery, Seoul, SK