Peter Kim, Lakeland
Member Since December 2014
Artist Statement A strong contemporary image maker from a world are perspective, my aesthetic echoes the abstract expressionists' of the forties and fifties. I was born in South Korea in 1953, My early exposure to the international art scene of the fifties accounts for my continued focus upon abstractionism. As a first generation immigrant, I have been well versed in the study of the Tao. The triangles appeared in my early work as a center of the universal consciousness and my center. Before my immigration to the United States, my work was published in dozens of exhibit catalogues: The Exhibition of Conversive Art, 1982; Young Artists Gathering, 1987, and ARTIPA in 1993, to name just a few.
I served in South Korea army and then acquired a degree in Fine Arts from a private university in Seoul. My painting aspirations hit a wall in 1982, however, that caused me to abandon my art in frustration. My " broke the brush", as I puts it, an inability to further refine and develop my art and imagery beyond an elevated threshold. Slowly, I was able to re-address the media of painting and went on the exhibit extensively throughout the 80's and 90's until I left my home country. Now after more than dozen years of quiet development, I am again productive, maintaining an active studio out of my home. This is my first public exhibition in the in the United States since I immigrated here with my wife and two children in 1996.
Developing larger canvases and a brighter palette of late, philosophically my eastern and western knowledge of religions has merged. With my conversion to Christianity, the triangle still appears in my painting, now symbolizing the Trinity and still a personal center. My adaptability in transition shows strength of character that is present in the visceral aspects of my early hand made paper pieces and my newest painting completed for this exhibition.
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