Adopting a dispassionate, almost taxonomic approach to parsing the elusive, multifaceted experience of inhabiting a certain social and physical environment (an urban Asian metropolis continuously undergoing transformation) at a given moment (the early 21st century), Sanggil Kim deploys technical sophistication and formal rigor in photographic images that alternately defamiliarize the familiar and dramatize – even melodramatize, sometimes to discomfiting effect – the banal. From the precisely staged psychosocial tableaus of his earlier motion picture series, and the continuing series of architectonic studies of urban structures and spaces in Seoul and other Asian cities, to the more recent series of group portraitures that capture individuals existing in virtual, Internet-based communities defined by a single specific, sometimes eccentric, interest – the wearing of Burberry plaids, for example – his work constitutes a contemporary archeology of illusory systems, networks, and structures.
Born in 1974
Lives and works in Seoul
Education
2000
MFA in Photography, Chung-Ang University, Seoul
1998
BFA in Photography, Daegu Arts University, Daegu, Korea
Solo Exhibitions
2008
"Layer," PKM Trinity Gallery, Seoul
2005
"Like a Program," Project Space Sarubia, Seoul
2003
"Recording Program: Like a Landscape," Gallery Jungmiso, Seoul
2002
"Recording Program: Like a Documentary," Ssamzie Space Sori, Seoul
2001
"Smart Program," Insa Art Space of the Arts Council Korea, Seoul
2000
"No Code," Galerie Bhak, Seoul
1997
"Everyday Life, the Dissatisfaction," Kodak Photo Salon, Seoul
Selected Group Exhibitions
2010
"The Infinite Starburst of Your Cold Dark Eyes," PKM Gallery | Bartleby Bickle & Meursault, Seoul
2009
"Peppermint Candy: Contemporary Art from Korea," National Museum of Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, Korea
"Foregrounded," PKM Gallery, Seoul
"Discoveries," ShContemporary 09, Shanghai Exhibition Center, Shanghai
"Chaotic Harmony," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
2008
"Translocalmotion," 7th Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai
"Time to Play?" APT Web Gallery, New York
"Memories of the Future," Daegu Photo Biennale, EXCO, Daegu, Korea
"Peppermint Candy: Contemporary Art from Korea," Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires
"Contemporary Korean Photographs 1948-2008," National Museum of Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, Korea
2007
"Peppermint Candy: Contemporary Art from Korea," Museum of Contemporary Art, Santiago, Chile
"Flash Cube," Leeum, Samsumg Museum of Art, Seoul
"Fast Break," PKM Gallery Beijing, Beijing
"Elastic Taboos," Kunsthalle Wien, Wien
Hermès Korea Missulsang, Atelier Hermès, Seoul
"Seoul: Räume, Menschen," ifa-Galerie, Stuttgart and Berlin
"Western Style Courtesy of Space," Daelim Contemporary Art Museum, Seoul
2006
"Three Stories," PKM Gallery, Seoul
"Living Room: Collection 1," Daelim Contemporary Art Museum, Seoul
2005
"17 X 17," Total Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul
"Fast Forward: Photographic Message from Korea," Fotografie Forum International, Frankfurt
"Scape-Code: Their Subjective Topographies," PKM Gallery, Seoul
"Encounters with Modernism," National Museum of Art, Deoksugung, Seoul
"K237 Area Improvement Project," Ssamzie Space, Seoul
"Incongruent: Contemporary Art from South Korea," Richard F. Brush Art Gallery, St. Lawrence University, Canton, New York
2004
"Look & See: Absolutely Landscape," Sungkok Art Museum, Seoul
"Document," Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul
"Unplugged Theater," Galerie Bhak, Seoul
2003
"5: Artsonje Collection," Artsonje Center, Seoul
"Fake & Fantasy," Art Center Nabi, Seoul
"Yangguang Canlan," ShanghArt, Shanghai
"Facing Korea: Demirrorized Zone," De Appel, Amsterdam
2002
"Photographie Contemporaine Coréenne," La Galerie Photo, Montpellier
"P_A_U_S_E," Gwangju Biennale Project 1, Gwangju, Korea
"Reality Bites," Alternative Space Loop, Seoul
2001
"New Acquisitions," National Museum of Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, Korea
Ssamzie Open Studio, Ssamzie Space Sori, Seoul
"Site-Specific," Lance Fung Gallery, New York
"Ssamzie Site-Specific," Ssamzie Space, Seoul
"Next Generation / Art Contemporain d'Asie," Passage de Retz, France
The 1st Photo Festival, Gana Art Center, Seoul
"A Day," Gallery O2, Seoul
2000
"Open Your Eyes," Sungkok Art Museum, Seoul
"New Ventures," National Museum of Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, Korea
"Subway Project," Media City Seoul, Seoul
"Crying Game: Daily Life and Narrative," Boda Gallery, Seoul
"Kangkyoung: Art, History, Image," Daelim Contemporary Art Museum, Daejeon, Korea
"Soup," Artsonje Center, Seoul
1999
"Les Recontres d'Arles," Daelim Contemporary Art Museum, Daejeon, Korea
"Projection & Re-Projection: Art and Film," Busan Museum of Art, Busan, Korea
"Criminal Photograph," Alternative Space Loop, Seoul
"Photograph Looks at Us," Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul
"Dangerous Show," Sal Bar, Seoul
"Memorial Photography," Daelim Contemporary Art Museum, Daejeon; Korean Culture and Arts Foundation, Seoul
1998
"Seoul in Media: Food, Clothing, Shelter," Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul
Collections
Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul
Museum der Kulturen, Basel, Switzerland
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, California
Artsonje Center, Seoul
Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, Ansan, Korea
Daum Communications, Seoul
Daelim Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul
National Museum of Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, Korea
SSamzie Collection, Seoul
Awards & Residencies
2005
Arts Council Korea Grant
2003
Korean Culture and Arts Foundation Grant
2001
The 3rd Ssamzie Studio Residency, Ssamzie Space, Seoul
1999
The 1st Photo Critics' Prize, Seoul