Born in Seoul in 1992 and currently based in her home city, Xi’an Kim is a contemporary artist who has gained international recognition for her singular and transformative approach to the still-life tradition. Her artistic foundation was established at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, where she earned her MA in Printmaking in 2018.
It was during her time in China that her practice began to shift toward the deconstruction of familiar objects and living beings, a process that involves stripping away extraneous details to reveal the stark, manufactured essence of her subjects.
Kim explicitly states that she does not pursue the authenticity of objects, but rather focuses on their artificiality, rendering them with a distinctive plastic-like texture that feels simultaneously permanent, cold, and illusionary.
Installation view of Art Brussels 2026; Xi'an Kim,
This stylistic choice is deeply connected to Kim’s desire to create an idealized state of nothingness on the canvas—a metaphorical utopia free from the weight of real-world ideologies and complexities.
By presenting reality through a detached and minimalistic lens, she invites viewers to engage with themes of perception without the interference of external social pressures.
Her frequent use of animals such as birds and deer is a direct reflection of her experiences in China, where social taboos often lead artists to use creatures as figurative vessels for human emotion.
Kim adopts this metaphorical language, using these animals to express profound feelings in a way that remains quiet, candid, and striking.
The resulting visual world constructed by Kim exists in a suspended state of simplicity, where the mundane is reshaped into something profound and almost surreal. This reimagining of reality allows her to question and reconstitute the world as we know it, negotiating with the environment as an empiricist interested in the tangible yet artificial nature of modern life.
Her rising prominence in the art world was highlighted by her selection as a Top 10 semi-finalist in the Highlights Artist category at the 2024 Korea International Art Fair (KIAF).
Kim’s exhibition history includes significant solo presentations such as Time Sleep at Artside Gallery in Seoul and Closed Market at Galerieovo in Taipei, alongside prominent group showcases at Newchild in Antwerp and Hive Art Center in Beijing.
Her contributions to contemporary Korean art are further solidified by the inclusion of her work in the permanent collection of the MMCA Art Bank, a subsidiary of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, South Korea. Through her evolving practice, Xi’an Kim continues to challenge the boundaries between the natural and the manufactured, offering a unique glimpse into a reality that is both familiar and strikingly detached.
Xi'an Kim Object 396, 2026 Acrylic on canvas 91 x 91 cm
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