Kim Young-Hun

Kim Young-Hun, p23055-Electronic Nostalgia, 2023-2026, Oil on canvas, 61 x 73cm

Gallery JJ is pleased to present Kim Young-Hun: Proxima, a solo exhibition of recent paintings by Kim Young-Hun. Known for his signature ripple patterns and chromatic fields, Kim expands the language of painting through perceptual landscape reshaped by paradigm shifts in contemporary science and technology.

 

Kim Young-Hun, p25025-Frequency, 2025, Oil on linen, 91 x 73cm

His paintings render visible an otherwise imperceptible field of vibrating electronic waves, transforming this energetic reality into a poetic metaphor for memory and longing across space and time. The exhibition brings together some twenty paintings from recent Frequency series that further extends his pictorial language, alongside Electronic Nostalgia, his seminal series, begun in 2009.

Kim Young-Hun, p26005-Electronic Nostalgia, 2026, Oil on canvas, 145 x 112.2cm

Layers of pigment, stains, scratches, and vibrating lines and planes emerge and recede, moving between continuity and discontinuity to create resonant visual variations. Rhythmic strokes sweep across the canvas, carrying the subtle tremor and movement of the body, while weathered surfaces reveal buried layers of color that hold the passage of time and awaken nostalgia.

Kim Young-Hun, p26012-Frequency, 2026, Oil on linen, 97.4 x 130cm

The tension and harmony between opposing forces define Kim’s practice: luminous digital color, ordered lines, and the irregularity of noise converge into a pictorial world of remarkable coherence. At times, the work unfolds as virtual space; at others, as a form of musical abstraction.

Kim Young-Hun, p26015-Frequency, 2026, Oil on linen, 162 x 130cm

Rooted in memories of virtual space, Electronic Nostalgia has evolved from fragmented dissolving forms shaped by electronic noise, through utopian landscapes, into an increasingly abstract realm of geometric pixels and waves. By contrast, Frequency turns from noise toward the material language of painting, establishing a consistent direction and order while generating rhythm through the weight and physicality of paint.

Kim Young-Hun, p26016-Frequency, 2026, Oil on linen, 194 x 194cm

This exhibition premieres p26015–Frequency (2026), a new work composed of a single brushstroke in which the wave energy of the cosmos finds expression as qi, embodying the East Asian ideal of qiyun shengdong (spirit resonance). Together these two defining series reveal the evolution of Kim’s practice, extending an electronic microcosm toward the scale of the universe. Ultimately, the microscopic and the vast are inseparably connected beyond the limits of perception, drawing us toward an uncharted space-time.

Kim Young-Hun, p26017-Frequency, 2026, Oil on linen, 112 x 145cm

The exhibition takes its title from Proxima, the nearest star beyond our solar system. Though our nearest stellar neighbor, it remains unimaginably distant and forever beyond reach, evoking the boundless universe and imagination. Starlight reaches us from the distant past; the stars we see belong to another time. Here, starlit longing converges with the rhythmic pulse of the scientific cosmos.

 

Gallery JJ
63 Apgujeong-ro 30-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Korea
+82 2-322-3979

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