The first solo exhibition of Kiwi Kim, a symbol worker, titled 'The Disappearance of Sleep' is being held at Insa Art Center (41-1 Insa-dong-gil) on the 15th of july.

 On the 3rd and 4th floors of Insa Art Center, Kiwi Kim's paintings, which have been active as a veteran advertising illustrator for a long time, are 'sparkling' and stylish like advertising images.

Kiwi Kim, who has worked in the advertising market for over 30 years, defines his life as a symbol worker and projects it onto the paintings on the 4th floor of Insa Art Center.

she explains his role in the advertising market as producing symbols as an advertising illustrator in this exhibition.

The 'key' near the hand shown in the painting of a man who seems to be taking a short nap from a difficult life seems to symbolize the key to achieving his life's goal.

Regarding the artwork depicting the woman, artist Kiwi Kim explained, "The pose of the woman in the painting is the same as the pose she had while in her mother's womb. The woman in the painting symbolizes the comfortable rest in her mother's womb, and I wanted to show that the thoughts of young women and the worries of older people are not much different." 

artist kiwi mentioned, "As we live, we have various worries and unexpected events happen, so I think I started asking the fundamental question of how humans find rest in such situations," and "I started these works with the question of whether or not these individual rooms and caves are all connected to create the structures of humans."

In particular, "Compared to other paintings, my paintings (I) have worked in advertising for 30 years, so there will be parts where the images (in the paintings) are clearly symbolic," she added, "I think a symbolic worker is someone who creates images and creates symbols and images within the structure of consumption in the capitalist market. I have also worked with advertising illustrators for beer and coffee companies in the past."

In response, artist kim said, "I worked as an advertising illustrator, so I think I have that kind of sentiment," and "I created tone and banners for advertising companies, controlled the overall story, and created the final image. It is not common for illustrators to enter the painting market, but it has become prominent recently. This is because contemporary art mixes illustration and painting and crosses boundaries."

Although Kiwi Kim worked as an illustrator, she has only been approaching painting as a painter for about 5 years.

The hands and pieces of the washcloth she created using the 3rd floor of the washcloth symbolize the tools of labor as media art.

Artist Kiwi Kim explained, "I started this work with the idea of creating this loofah media art and putting it in a video. loofah symbolizes the tools of labor used by housewives at home." He added, "I created this media art with the idea of drawing digitally and creating it to build up layers."

she continued, "At one point, I accidentally shined a light on loofah , and it sparkled so much. I also set up this work by placing the light next to loofah." 

she added, "loofah is like a tool that helps with labor. It is so strong and shiny, but it wears out and disappears. It's like something that is thrown away, and I thought that moment was similar to the lives of sensory workers like us."

Regarding loofah media art, she called it a being that silently performs labor that no one pays attention to, and interpreted it as a material that shines like an advertisement image but does not need light or color on its own. 

 artist Kiwi Kim's solo exhibition at the Insa Art Center will continue until the 28th, and the artwork can be purchased at exhinition hall directly.