top of page

KIM JI HEE

Sealed smile

Sealed smile

2018, color on korean paper, 162.2x130.3cm

Seaeled smile

Seaeled smile

2019, Digital print, 46.0x64.0cm

Sealed smile.

Sealed smile.

2023, Colored on Korean paper, 72x60cm

Sealed smile-Trunk(s).

Sealed smile-Trunk(s).

2024, Acrylic on Canvas, 30x30cm

Sealed smile-Trunk(s).

Sealed smile-Trunk(s).

2024, Acrylic on Canvas, 30x30cm

The Fancy Spirit-Trunk(s)

The Fancy Spirit-Trunk(s)

2024, Acrylic on Canvas, 30x30cm

The Fancy Spirit-Trunk(s)

The Fancy Spirit-Trunk(s)

2024, Acrylic on Canvas, 30x30cm

Education
2007    Ewha Women's University School of Formative Arts, Oriental Painting Major
             Minor in Art History
2008    Graduate School of Oriental Painting, Ewha Women's University


Selected Solo Exhibitions
2024    Beyond the Eternal Golden, chi K11 art space, Shěnyáng Shì(China)
2023    Eternal Golden, Gana Forum Space, 서울

2022    The Fancy Spirit, Gana Art Sounds, Seoul
2021    Keep Shining, Gallery Now, Seoul
             Print Bakery Walkerhill Vista Open Exhibition, Good Vibes, Seoul
2020    Rhapsody of Glorious Extinction Grandiose but Disposable Rhapsody, Pyo Gallery, Seoul
             Kim Ji Hee Drawing Exhibition, "Paper Doll", Kunst 1
2019    Kim Jihee Invitation Exhibition, Space Bar, Seoul
             Twinkle Twinkle, Choice Art Company
             Kim Jihee's Museum Opening Exhibition - MAXIMUM, Museum Da
2016    Floating Wonderland, Pyo Gallery, Seoul
2014    Lucky Strike, Mercedes-Benz Hansung Motors Samsung Auto Gallery VIP Event
2013    Virtual Camouflage, Chungjark Gallery
2011    Chungjark Art Award Ceremony

Selected Group Exhibitions 

2022    Kim Deokyong, Kim Jihee 2-Person Exhibition, Gallery M.Nine, Seoul
2021    Breathing Walls, Swiss Embassy in Korea, Seoul
             "Let's Get It", Opening Exhibition of Dareum Culture Gallery, Seoul
2020    The Tip of the Iceberg, Gallery In,  Seoul
             Hong Kyung Taek, Kim Ji Hee, Lee, Kyung Mi 3-Person Exhibition <ICONIC>, Art Delight Gallery
             Super Collection, Superior Gallery
             Super Nature, Museum Da
2018    R U There, Suwon I-Park Museum of Art, Gyeonggi-do
             Drawing and Pacing Around, Nuuk Gallery, Seoul
2017    Art Lab, Pyo Gallery, Seoul
             Honeymoon Story, Lotte Gallery
2016    Beautiful Moment, Eternal Wish, 63 Art Museum
             Modern Boy Collaboration, Seoul Auction Print Bakery
             MBC DMC Festival Special Exhibition - Us, Face, Sangam MBC
             Ask  Charles Perot about Contemporary Art, Pinocchio Museum
2015    GS Caltex Yeosu Yeulmaru Art Museum, Living with Pop, Yeulmaru Art Museum
             Family Diary, Yangpyeong County Museum of Art
             Bling! Bling! Art Factory

 

​Art Collaboration 

LG Objet refrigerator, SK Telecom, Volvik, Stonehenge, Crocs, Chinese cosmetics LIMI,

Hong Kong New World Group mega mall D PARK, Korean Red Cross Blood Donation Day, K-pop Girl Group 'Girls' Generation', Missha Cosmetics, and more.

Article

Glamorous, bright, pretty, dazzling, shiny.
  This is the first impressions I feel when I see Kim Ji Hee's works. However, the gaze is blocked in front of the large sunglasses worn by the figure in the work, which is somewhat contrary to the splendid background. Would it be because you can't see the eyes behind the lenses? Unlike the first impression, a strange uneasiness comes in. If you continue to look at the work, you will find conflicting images between various jewels and ornaments that represent splendor. Various images that symbolize other human desires, such as images of war, appear inside one piece of work and tells differen stories from the impression it gives on the outside. The twofold attitude of anxiety hidden behind the splendor always appears as a pair in Kim Ji Hee's works.

​  Kim Ji Hee's "Sealed Smile" series, which has been continued since 2008, is a portrait of the characters behind large sunglasses as if they would not easily show their true feelings. The characters in the work who somehow hide themselves in colorful images of desires are always smiling. But they don't technically look just happy. The way that they sometimes seem to be smiling and weeping at the same time in the work gives you a feeling of discomfort and brings out a curiosity about the double image. 'Humans desire the desires of others." Like the theory of Jacques Lacan(1901~1981), the characters in Kim's works desire the same thing as others to be identical with them while covering their eyes, which would mean their own nature. It is not easy for the audience to reach out to the true desire facing the large sunglasses covering the eyes. "Sealed Smile" has the same theme of desire between others and me, but it changes the ways of expressing several times. The simple form of the character in the early works was transformed more luxuriously and the sunglasses were also expanded from hiding the nature of the character and became the eyes itself. As the windows to see the world, the sunglasses have become more detailed and colorful on the outside, but at the same time, the truth behind the dark is also completely hidden, further strengthening the double boundary frame.


 <The Variation Between Desire and Hope> by Kim Yujin,

Curator at National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art

bottom of page