Kim Yoonseop held his solo exhibition Stay Active Expansion Set at Sobigi Gallery in Busan (67-4 Gwangnam-ro, Suyeong-gu) from August 22 to September 22, 2024, presenting a body of work that deepened his pictorial inquiries and expanded his narrative imagination.
More recently, from October 16 to November 3, he also participated in the group exhibition Loose Basin at the Insa Art Center, located on the second floor of the gallery at 41-1 Insadong-gil.
The Busan exhibition was organized around three interwoven thematic axes—“the narrative of painting,” “the narrative of surreal genre fantasy,” and “the narrative of reality-running.” Through these strands, Kim constructed a multi-layered structure in which text and image, pictorial surface and inner narrative, continuously intersected and influenced one another.
In the section exploring the “narrative of painting,” he examined how cartoon-like drawings, gestural brushwork, lines and planes, and the interplay of abstraction and figuration can generate their own sequence of events.
Unpredictable marks or gestures, he explains, not only shape the immediate surface but also open the path toward the next decision, ultimately turning the methodology of painting itself into a narrative form.
The second strand, “surreal genre fantasy,” drew from genre literature, gaming culture, and broader popular-media imagery.
Kim fused these borrowed elements with the language of fine art to construct an intentionally exaggerated, fantastical world.
His goal was not simply to reinterpret existing formats but to push beyond the limits of conventional painting by creating a self-contained genre universe. Within this invented world, he explored new surfaces and storylines, testing how far painting can stretch.
He describes this process as the deliberate act of “making something strange,” inviting viewers to step into the logic and rules of this alternate reality.
The third pillar, “the narrative of reality-running,” originates from Kim’s own lived experiences—his physical routines, endurance-based activities, and the symbolic dimension of movement in life, practice, and art.
This trajectory incorporates mythological references, tracing back to his 2021 work Madman Wandering the Wilderness, which forms the early prototype for the ongoing motif of repeated journeys.
For the artist, running operates as a metaphor for the perpetual cycles of challenge, return, and renewal that structure both art-making and existence.
Reflecting on his artistic process, Kim notes moments when “the paint and brushwork demand the next step on their own.”
He recalls conversations with his mentor about how the material properties of paint may suggest certain directions—sometimes prompting the artist to listen, and other times to resist firmly.
He interpreted this guidance as an instruction to “escape when necessary, but never lose the larger direction.” Kim also emphasizes why he continues to pursue figuration over abstraction: figuration presents greater trials.
Depicting a specific object carries narrative force that pulls him further into the work, whereas vague or ambiguous imagery, he argues, leaves too many escape routes.
Confronting a concrete subject, therefore, feels truer and more honest to him. As he prepares for another solo exhibition scheduled for July 2024, Kim admits he has yet to determine its conceptual direction. Writing, he explains, helps him clarify ideas as he works, especially when navigating uncertainty.
He likens this uncertainty to encountering a cactus in his path—whether to follow the direction it seems to point or confront the next potential danger is never clear. Such metaphors reflect his view of the artistic journey as a continuous sequence of unpredictable choices.
His exhibition text also evokes recurring symbolic motifs: a desert crown adorned with emeralds, the materiality of stones, the textures of geological formations, and the cellular and chemical activities that constitute the human body.
These elements reveal Kim’s understanding of painting not merely as an image-producing practice but as a narrative field where questions about material reality, mythic imagination, and human existence intersect.
Stay Active Expansion Set thus stands as a significant moment in Kim Yoonseop’s evolving artistic trajectory—an exhibition that expands the fundamental possibilities of painting while illuminating the intertwined themes of movement, imagination, and narrative.
More than a conventional solo show, it offers a clear glimpse into the artist’s current position and hints at the direction his future work may take.
