Jinhee Kim

Jinhee Kim paints in acrylic on canvas, catching brief, inconspicuous moments of everyday life and turning ordinary human states into visual allegories. Her figures are softly modelled, rounded and anonymous; skin colour, gender and social attributions are left open, tied to an understanding of identity as fluid. Light plays a central role, modelling the figures, opening imaginary spaces beyond the visible and giving the flat pictorial space a subtle depth. The scenes have a stage-like quality, with dramatic lighting and clear compositions, and catch gestures that usually go unnoticed or feel embarrassing, such as biting nails or picking at teeth. Kim spray-paints recurring motifs such as mirrors, window panes and screens, marking them as thresholds between inside and outside, body and image. In recent work the paintings step off the wall in oak frames that turn them into objects and stages the viewer moves around.