Donggi Kim: Cutting to Layers
Garam Gallery
2026. 10. 07 – 10. 24

Exhibition View of Cutting to Layers

Printmaking leaves images on thin sheets of paper, yet within them lie the accumulated weight of countless hours of labor, time, memory, and space.

곶자왈 No. 18, 2024.
Engraving, oil paint, printmaking ink, and pearl pigment on high-density MDF, 57.5 x 80 cm.

While faithfully preserving the traditions of woodcut printmaking, Kim Donggi has continued to expand the boundaries of the medium by cutting, assembling, and transforming prints into installations. Through the precise marks of the carving knife, repeated images, and monumental landscapes formed from individual fragments, the physical limitations of printmaking become new creative possibilities.

구조, 2026.
Acrylic and silkscreen on hanji, cut and collage, 22.5 x 14 cm each, 12 pieces.

Kim Donggi’s installation Rock Island depicts an urban landscape in which houses gather, disperse, and regroup. As houses multiply and cluster together, they form shapes resembling mountains and islands. Yet through urban redevelopment, these structures are dismantled, erased, and reassembled into new configurations.

바위섬 No. 2, 2026.
Silkscreen, watercolor, acrylic, cut and collage on paper (printmaking paper, jangji, and sunji), 160 x 100 cm.

In this exhibition, visitors are invited to select and cut out a section of Rock Island to take home as part of a participatory art project.

Pyeong (평) is a traditional Korean unit of area commonly used in real estate, with 1 pyeong equivalent to approximately 3.3 m². In this project, the concept is translated into the scale of the artwork, where 1 pyeong is represented by a 3.3 × 3.3 cm section.

1 pyeong — KRW 1,000
3 pyeong — KRW 3,000
5 pyeong — KRW 5,000

구조 00, 2026.
Acrylic on canvas, silkscreen on hanji, cut and collage, 162 x 112 cm.

Choose your own pyeong from any part of the installation.

With each fragment removed, the landscape of Rock Island gradually transforms. Just as urban spaces are demolished, change ownership, and acquire new meanings and memories, the artwork itself continues to be dismantled and reshaped throughout the exhibition. What you take home is both a fragment of the artwork and a piece of a disappearing city.

인왕산, 2025.
Silkscreen, watercolor, acrylic, cut and collage on paper (printmaking paper, jangji, and sunji), 122 x 161 cm.

We invite you to explore Kim Donggi’s work, where city and nature, digital and analog, and parts and wholes intersect across multiple layers, in his solo exhibition Cutting to Layers.

– Garam Gallery

Image: © Donggi Kim. Courtesy the artist and Garam Gallery.

Garam Gallery
11, Insadong 10-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul
+82-2-732-6170
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