We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kiya Kim. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kiya below.

Alright, Kiya thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

Throughout my career, I have engaged in various projects, but two stand out in particular. One of these is a recent collaboration with LEEUM Store, an extension of the LEEUM Museum in Seoul, under the auspices of the Samsung Foundation. They approached me to develop their best selling products that integrate my artwork. The store itself represents an elegant confluence of tradition and modernity, serving as a bridge that connects artists with the world and individuals with the essence of art. This space, where diverse works from various disciplines artists are displayed, often transforms into an intimate gallery, inviting visitors to experience the role of collector rather than that of mere consumer.

Eight of my artworks have been reimagined as four sets of traditional Korean fans and handkerchiefs, with two additional pieces applied into silk scarves. These will debut in the showroom in November, where they will be exhibited and available for purchase. The thought of my work becoming part of people’s everyday lives is profoundly inspiring. While it’s essential for art to be showcased in galleries as singular works, I find similar meaning in softening these boundaries and transforming art into lifestyle pieces, fostering a more intimate connection with collectors. Looking ahead, I aim to collaborate with culturally resonant enterprises that are rooted in deep conceptual themes, allowing me to bring my explorations of metaphorical language and artistic sensibilities into the world in fresh and immersive ways.

Another most resonant projects has been a socially engaged performance titled ‘ This is My Laugh.’ First unveiled on Chelsea Street in New York in 2017, this practice has since traversed various spaces, including Frieze NY, The Armory, and The Broad in LA, culminating most recently at The Bass Museum’s Preview Party during the Miami Basel season in 2022.

The project took root in a quiet reflection on my autobiographical narrative, where I discovered that laughter is intricately woven into my essence—a sound that was once inseparable from me. However, I fell silent after losing my parents at the age of 26. Years later, on a whim, I reached for a piece of idle material in my studio, wrapped it in paper, and offered it to someone, simply saying, “This is my laugh.” in boundless. Their reactions were profound. Many people were touched by this act of transforming laughter into objects—small bird-like forms evoking sound, artificial leaves, and other materials I commonly use in my work.
Through this project, emotional sounds were transformed into tangible forms that could be seen. Laughter was reinterpreted as new shapes, extensions of language, and perhaps sparked forgotten smiles. In each interaction, I became the performer, therapist, and audience all at once. By 2018, this laughter had evolved into a ‘wearable laugh’ in the form of a pin, shared with visitors at my solo exhibition in New York.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a multidisciplinary artist who moved from Seoul to Brooklyn, New York, in 2008. I received an MFA in Interdisciplinary study in Art Practice at SVA and a Fashion Styling certification from FIT, after previously majoring in Fine Arts in Korea. I have accomplished many solo exhibitions in museums and galleries and collaborated with companies like Hyundai Motors, MCM, and LEEUM Store. And my practice has extended to socially engaged projects, including site-specific regeneration and performance art out of the box. My multifaceted works take various forms: rhythmic site-specific installations, ethereal videos, juxtaposed assemblages, whimsical jewelry, interactive performances, and festive, fashion-based sculptures and time to time I become a medium myself.

I’ve pursued exploring a spectrum of metaphorical language with a sense of contemplation, allowing urban landscapes that have shaped my life to reveal a world of boundless material fabrications. My work unites unpredictable forms and ambiguous structures that evolve into visual poetry—vibrant narratives that unfold infinitely through intuitive resonance. By weaving together colors, objects, and even invisible sentences in my mind, I seek to disrupt the familiar language of societal promises, awakening the unconscious and inviting a journey beyond the boundaries of convention in the name of arts.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

My life and artistic journey are inseparable, woven together in realms of introspection. At the heart of it all leads the quiet ritual of prayer in stillness and tranquility, a purification of the mind that anchors me to the creative page. Before taking any action—whether making artwork or presenting an exhibition—I must first nurture my inner motivations from generating inner muses. The creative circuit only begins when I reach a state of peaceful contemplation, and my spirit moves freely within. Like a plant seeking sunlight, I periodically immerse myself in light-filled spaces, allowing time to dry out and recharge. Sometimes, I plunge into the transparent water, savoring a childlike freedom that feels boundless.

Also the act of writing serves as a vital cornerstone of my resilience. It becomes a transformative process, where I sift through my feelings and perceptions, reinterpreting them through the lens of my own language. This delicate interplay between introspection and expression deepens my creative practice, allowing it to blossom and extend beyond its initial boundaries. And then the elements filled with my inner richness converge with the external world—through objects, hues, and the element of the city—shaping the process of my work.

Eventually The convergence of the material world and the unseen realm of the immaterial gives rise to ambiguous visual vocabularies, where the interplay of colors and forms culminates in their own poetic gestures.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I believe there is profound value in a lifelong journey marked by the continuous questioning and contemplation of the objects and phenomena I encounter at each moment. This path is driven by an innate desire to uncover and engage with the elements within me, to cultivate a creative existence through constant exploration. Moreover, the accumulated outcomes of this inner work resonate as a form of art, fostering meaningful exchanges with others and imparting influence on society. Although this journey may appear obscure, slow, and devoid of immediate outcomes, an insatiable yearning, akin to a deer thirsting for water, propels me forward. In a paradoxical way, it is this unending thirst that fuels my artistic purpose.

Dreams and aspirations find their true significance not merely in their fulfillment but in their capacity to sustain. For this enduring life, I sometimes face the grueling battle within myself. Yet, there is a profound blessing in being able to honor, expand, and deepen the gifts I was born with. The deep sorrows in my life have weathered have now transformed into a radiant of color language, a dawn of jubilant hues that illuminate the world as brightly as midday, for which I am endlessly grateful.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://kiyakim.me/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kiyakim_artworks/

Image Credits

by kiya kim