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I create paintings that function as portals - bridges between world, time, and space. Rooted in my experience within the Korean diaspora, my practice draws from ancestral memory, Korean folktales and Shamanism. My paintings are messages carried through generations, woven with surreal landscapes, divine women, sacred animals, and elemental harmony, creating primordial realms that can act as a supporting force for current realities.

The visual language within my practice is anchored in the five elements - water, fire, metal, wood and earth. These elements serve as both structural and spiritual frameworks as it is believed in Korean Shamanism that we are born with a unique imprint of elemental energies. Therefore, harmony within this lifetime can come from finding balance within. This echoes the larger forces of duality and cyclical harmony that govern our existence. 

Through these symbolic systems, I create realms that feel abundant, fantastical, yet familiar - it holds the complexity of diasporic identity and the nature of duality. These realms within my paintings act as a compass for navigating a sense of belonging in the external world whilst nurturing inner sovereignty.

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Nahyun Kim is a Korean-American painter living and working in New York, NY.

Kim earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Carnegie Mellon University, and has exhibited at Glass Rice (San Francisco, CA), Swim Gallery (San Francisco, CA), Root Division (San Francisco, CA), Abrams Claghorn Gallery (Albany, CA), CounterPulse (San Francisco, CA), Little Raven Gallery (San Francisco, CA), Madsen Gallery (Los Altos, CA) among others and was recently part of a NYC Public Art Initiative by Visionary Projects (New York, NY).

*Photograph by Lauren Hanussak