Kim Yun Shin (b. 1935, Wonsan, North Korea; lives and works in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Gyeonggi-do, South Korea) is a multidisciplinary artist known for her dynamic sculpture and painting, which often unfold through a series of interactions with nature. Growing up amidst the backdrop of Korea’s tumultuous history in the 20th century, Kim has established herself as a pioneering figure in the post-war South Korean art scene, overcoming societal norms to carve out a space for herself as a first-generation woman sculptor. Despite facing challenges in a male-dominated field, she ventured to Paris to pursue her artistic aspirations, taught at various universities, and co-founded the Korean Sculptress Association in 1974 to support emerging artists. Partly influenced by her nomadic early life, her work reflects a fearless exploration of diasporic cultures—from France, Mexico, and Brazil, to her adoptive home of Argentina, where she established Museo Kim Yun Shin, the first Korean immigrant art museum. Her journey from turbulent beginnings during the Japanese colonial period and Korean War to becoming a trailblazer in Korean contemporary art reflects the artist’s personal resilience and commitment to artistic innovation.
Across six decades, Kim has developed an aesthetic that engages with the fundamental qualities of materials and nature, navigating themes of confrontation, introspection, and coexistence. Central to her artistic expression is the use of solid wood, a primary medium through which Kim envisions the structural and spiritual elements of antiquity and the primordial world. In doing so, she visualizes the intersection between nature, time, and history, reconsidering the very essence of human existence. Her early sculptures from the 1970s are deeply rooted in traditional Korean hanok architecture, which uses a distinctive technique that joins wooden blocks without nails. In her Stacking Wishes series, the artist also explores traditions of vertical stacking in Korean and Latin American totemism. This notion of organic connection and her interest in East Asian philosophy merge in her iconic Add Two Add One, Divide Two Divide One series, which she began in the late 1970s. The terms “add” and “divide” originate from the philosophical concept of yin (division and fragmentation) and yang (addition and integration). Through a meticulous yet intuitive process—in which Kim “adds” her soul into the solid wood and “divides” the space between the bark and inner wood to create a complete whole—the artist delves into raw materiality and uncovers a newfound vitality.
Trained as a lithographer in Paris, Kim’s practice extends to painting and engraving—mediums which allow her to explore sculptural concepts in a two-dimensional format. Her paintings are marked by distinctive surface fragmentation; across her compositions, large sections gradually divide into smaller shapes. Here too, her process involves addition and subtraction. Kim adds pigment to her surfaces, then uses a palette knife to scrape off the paint, generating geometric patterns as she works. Drawn to the indigenous trees and stones of Argentina, as well as to South American totemism, Kim witnessed a striking resemblance in color and pattern to that of Korean totemism, which distinctly influenced her early experimentation with painting on canvas and on her wooden sculptures. The resulting artworks evoke a primordial energy, at once expansive and concise, concentrated and diffused. Kim’s oeuvre speaks to a sense of harmony and stability that underlies the natural state of being.
Kim received her B.F.A. from Hongik University in Seoul, South Korea, in 1959 and studied sculpture and lithography at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France, in 1964. Returning to Seoul in 1969, she taught sculpture at Sangmyung University as a professor until 1983 and participated in the 12th São Paulo Biennale in 1973. Despite having a successful career, the artist decided to move to Argentina in 1984 to expand her artistic practice. In 2008, Kim founded the Museo Kim Yun Shin in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Select recent solo exhibitions of Kim’s work have been organized by LEEUNGNO Museum, Daejeon, South Korea (2024); Lehmann Maupin, New York, NY (2024); Park Soo Keun Museum, Yanggu, South Korea (2024); Kukje Gallery, Seoul, South Korea (2024); Nam-Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea (2023); Whitewave Art Center, Seoul, South Korea (2022, 2015); Gallery Banditrazos, Seoul, South Korea (2022), E2Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2022); Korean Cultural Center, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2022, 2021, 2018); Korean Cultural Center, Warsaw, Poland (2019); Korean Cultural Center, Madrid, Spain (2019); Centro Cultural Pilar, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2017); Cabildo, Córdoba, Argentina (2016); Museo Municipal de Arte Moderno Mendoza, Mendoza, Argentina (2015); Hanwon Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea (2015); María Elena Kravetz Gallery, Córdoba, Argentina (2010); and Museo de Arte López Claro, Azul, Argentina (2009).
Select group exhibitions featuring her work include 2024 Sculpture in Seoul: The Strange Encounter, Yeollin Songhyeon Square, Seoul, South Korea (2024, forthcoming); Art at Americas Society, NY, New York (2024, forthcoming); 2024 ARKO Selection: ZIP, ARKO Art Center, Seoul, South Korea (2024); Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere, the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia (2024); Diálogos artísticos: KIM Yunshin y Mari Puri Herrero, Korean Cultural Center, Madrid, Spain (2019); 15 Korean Abstract Painters: Yesterday and Today, Ahn Sang Chul Museum, Yangju, South Korea (2015); Green Life, Korean Cultural Center, Washington, D.C. (2012); STONE LAND, Iksan International Stone Culture Project, Iksan, South Korea (2012); Encuentro, Korean Cultural Center, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2011); International Sculpture Symposium, Rosario, Argentina (2007); Exhibition of Korean Artists in South America, São Paulo, Brazil (2006); Korean-Spanish Sculpture Symposium, Icheon, South Korea (2003); Beijing International Sculpture Symposium, Beijing, China (2002); The 7th International Sculpture Symposium, Rosario, Argentina (2001); The 3rd International Sculpture Symposium, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2000); Exposición Grupal de la Asociación Artes Plásticas Coreana, Buenos Aires, Argentina (1998); Galería de Arte La Candelaria, Buenos Aires, Argentina (1995); ‘95 Korean Women Artist Festival, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea (1995); and Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City, Mexico (1992, 1991).
Kim’s work is in numerous international public and private collections, including Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City, Mexico; Museo de Arte Moderno, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Museo de Arte López Claro, Azul, Argentina; Central Post Office, Rosario, Argentina; Beijing International Sculpture Park, Beijing, China; National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, South Korea; Park Soo Keun Museum in Yanggu County, Yanggu, South Korea; Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea; Hanwon Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea; Korea Land and Housing Corporation, Seoul, South Korea; Asan Social Welfare Foundation, Asan Medical Center, Seoul, South Korea; Korean-Spanish Sculpture Park, Gwangju, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea; and Central Sports Park, Iksan, South Korea.