City Illuminated

Born in Daejeon, Korea in 1983, professor and painter Min Young Kim holds a PhD and MFA in Painting from Hongik University, and a BFA from Kyung Hee University. Her passion for painting harkens back to her childhood, where she first became enraptured by the images in the book series, Where's Waldo. Her interest lies in the aesthetics of populated spaces, such as subways or crowded marketplaces, and hopes to convey an embodied sense of the interpersonal connections in those spaces throughout her painted works. Currently, Kim teaches Basic Drawing at Hongik University and is an art instructor at the Seoul Art Center. 

She has held numerous solo exhibitions at major institutions across Korea. Recent highlights include her exhibition Scenery of the Day at Sanwoolim Art Gallery in 2021, Between Life and Rest at Gallery Mir in 2019, and City’s Hidden Face at the Gangneung Museum of Art in 2019.

She is the recipient of the Special Award and Support Prize at the Danwon Art Festival in 2017 and 2018. Her artwork is in the public art collections of institutions such as in the Korea Government Art Bank, Korea Development Bank, the Gyeonggido Museum of Modern Art. In addition, two of her paintings are in the permanent collection at the National Museum of Contemporary Art of Korea. She currently resides in Seoul.