Sound of Silence-German Forest

Almost exactly 10 years ago, Heryun Kim exhibited her works for the first time at the Kunsthalle Dresden, the exhibit then titled "Moon Garden". In the meantime, her painting has changed a lot, the series have become more harmonious, at the same time more dramatic, and embody a more abstract view of nature. The forest atmosphere in Kim's Berlin studio, very lonely and on the outskirts of the city, characterizes her most recent observations. Heryun Kim, leads us in her new series into nature again, into a lonely forest, into The Sound of Silence - German Forest, the title of the series and of this exhibition.

김혜련_The Lonesome Forest 15_캔버스에 유채_160×180cm_2017

In the content of the forest, the choice of colour and structure are important elements. The intensity of the colours is reminiscent of the German Expressionists. Heryun Kim has a doctorate on Emil Nolde. The choice of colours refers to seasons or emotional moods. There are different areas in the forest that she captures in this cycle of works: man-made and in structured zones, but also wild growth, weather and the glowing sun that breaks through the undergrowth.

김혜련_Sound of Silence-German Forest展_Kunsthalle Dresden_2019

김혜련_Sound of Silence-German Forest展_Kunsthalle Dresden_2019

Some of the paintings in The Lonesome Forest series are based on a grid. It borders, stops the wildness of nature and at the same time allows free space or even a view of the sky. And there are works that show a narrow, wild thicket of up-and-coming and curved lines in large numbers, which may have been created intuitively and show a direct connection between head over hand and the painting. The series also tells of loneliness in the midst of the plant world, or raging thoughts.

김혜련_Sound of Silence-German Forest展_Kunsthalle Dresden_2019

In Heryun Kim's cycle of works, the tradition of Asian landscape painting mixes with German Expressionism on the one hand, and Heryun's precise, highly topical contemporary gaze with its idiosyncratic, experimental use of oil paint on the other. She has the courage to engage in something new with each series of paintings. She reweights, reduces or condenses form, colour and structure in each individual creative process.

김혜련_Sound of Silence-German Forest展_Kunsthalle Dresden_2019

김혜련_Sound of Silence-German Forest展_Kunsthalle Dresden_2019

Heruyn Kim was born in South Korea in 1964 and studied at the Seoul National University and then at the UdK in Berlin. She lives and works mostly in Paju, South Korea. But she also keeps a studio in Berlin, where the works for her current exhibition were created during her stays, which always last several months. After her bachelor's degree in German language and literature and her master's degree in art history at Seoul National University, she came to Germany in the 1990s and studied painting at the Berlin University of the Arts. She also earned a doctorate in art studies with Professor Robert Suckale at the Technical University of Berlin. ■ Kunsthalle Dresden

Vol.20190202i | 김혜련展 / Heryun Kim / 金惠蓮 / painting