Laura Kim: Constructions

gallery km is very pleased to present Constructions, our first solo show by Los Angeles-based artist Laura Kim.  The exhibition includes several small-scaled works on paper, primarily monochromatic, each about 8 by 10 inches. The pieces are formed from dye-based inkjet prints on cotton rag paper, cut into pieces and sewn together with thread in forms that often break the traditional two-dimensional rectangle. The show will be held in our west gallery from September 15 – October 27, with a reception for the artist on Saturday, September 15th, from six to eight in the evening.

The pieces in Constructions offer a sense of play—play with the rectangle, with the established boundaries of the two-dimensional wall-exhibited artwork, and with the notion of the art-historical black monochrome. Kim has described her previous video and print practice as exploring time, material, form and emotion. These themes manifest in her current work through formal repetition integrated with moments of controlled organic tension. In this series, however, Kim moves further into a focus on construction rather than depiction, on emphasizing the intrinsic qualities of material rather than utilizing that material in tribute to an outside referent (representational or otherwise). This attempt to elevate materiality and detach it from referent is one she recognizes to be problematic, and the sense of play in the work in many ways acts to acknowledge the impossibility of this task, and the incongruently emotional result of reducing material down to its most basic elements.  

Laura Kim was born in Seoul, South Korea, and lives and works in Los Angeles. She received her M.F.A. from California Institute of the Arts in 2009, and has exhibited at gallery km and Stephen Cohen Gallery in Los Angeles, and at Peter Fingesten Gallery at Pace University in New York. This is her first solo show.