With a brand new series of 7 oil paintings on linen, the artist is equally and profoundly inspired by the Old Testament and Italian Renaissance stories. Kim distinguishes herself once again across the dynamism and vibrant spirit of the represented scenes. Expertly declined across a combination of playful and populated scenarios, the artist bestows sacredness with the Still Image effect. She captures the diversity of the movement in the represented scenes, freezing them at the apex of the action and returning the profound contrast between the noisy buzz of reality and the silence of the canvas space.
The artist represents the characters with caricature treats to reveal extreme attention to the intimate detail of emotion that remains private, to that particular sentiment which remains a secret in a personal elaboration in the heart of each of us. While they appear like acrobats in the complexity of family everyday life to represent the unity and at the same time the cyclicality of the human story, the protagonists play on the sophisticated equilibrium of forces. Gifting us a show characterised by the dynamism of the emotion, which being the conceptual pole of the artwork, needs to move to develop and unravel them.
Parallel to the atmosphere of the famous Fountain of Youth by Lucas Cranach The Elder. The artist brings out from her paintings a perceptible and dynamic tension that is possible to admire in Moving Out III and Half Time, which directly reports the great German artist’s scenarios. In direct parallelism with the masterpieces, Primitive People and Old Man Beguiled by Courtesans, which is also expressed in a strong plastic force through the physicality and sinuosity of the characters’ bodies and ambiguous expressions.
The tension and the inclination of Grace Eunshin Kim’s populated scenarios represent the constant search for happiness. In the portrayal of Kim’s stories, the balance of happiness is consumed between the desire to act and the instant before. Recalling the moment in which Eve’s hand leans over to reach the forbidden fruit, in the hope of complete happiness and knowledge of all similarly, in the characters portrayed by Grace, happiness is displayed along with the hope for more but fear of losing the desired pursuit. As well, it’s possible to deduce even in the kaleidoscopic sentimental representation of Celebration II. On this occasion, the adoration of the Magi is represented across the surrealism of her characters which, far from discrediting the spirituality of the occasion, celebrates the greatest influences of a mocking Magritte.
Grace Eunshin Kim’s painting is influenced by Polish genius Balthus. This can be particularly noticed by observing Half Time, close for tension and coloured palette. Furthermore, by reading into A Boy and a Girl, we find the same pose and inscrutable expression of The King of Catsadmiring in Wrestle the same plasticity that we once observed in Children. All together resulting in a constant but subtle tribute, greatly executed to the uniqueness of Grace’s detailing, who doesn’t miss any chance to pervade every canvas of her Asian heritage.
