From Afar Abstract, Up Close Dense Narratives: Kim Hoon-kyu Solo Show 'The Prayers'
Creatrip Team
4 months ago
Kim Hoon-kyu, a Korea-born artist based in London, opens his solo exhibition "The Prayers" at Perrotin Seoul, showing 17 works (13 paintings and 4 drawings) made in 2024–25. Using traditional East Asian silk painting ("bidancheaesaek") techniques, Kim layers color so that the canvases read as abstract patterns from a distance but reveal packed, figurative scenes up close. Instead of humans, animals—pigs, rabbits, mice, cats—act out allegorical dramas: fighting, performing rituals, and breaking things to expose clashes of belief, order vs. chaos, and the mixing of religion and politics. A centerpiece, The Blue 2024, places Paris iconography (the Louvre glass pyramid) and roosters amid protest and police conflict to critique romanticized views of Europe. Other works set in Korea show red-dominated pieces with church steeples, waving Taegeuk flags (South Korea’s national flag) and fervent animal worshippers, reflecting Kim’s view that political identity has become quasi-religious. The exhibition runs through Dec. 20.
