Artist paints his daily life

Korean artist Kim Ji-won’s uniquely grotesque cockscomb paintings come in different colors -- exuberant red, faded gray.

Kim, best known for this cockscomb painting series, is holding a solo exhibition at PKM Gallery in Samcheong-dong, Seoul, titled “Canvas Fly.”

His latest exhibition consists more than 90 paintings by Kim, including representative paintings from the series focusing on cockscomb flowers -- maendeurami in Korean -- as well as other works that depict landscapes and everyday objects.

The cockscomb series started more than 15 years ago, after Kim returned from his studies in Germany. It was during his stay in Gangwon Province that he became fascinated by the flowers, the artist said during a press conference last week at PKM Gallery.

The artist liked the flowers so much that he even planted some around his workshop in Gangwon Province, he added.

The workshop is an important space where he spends most of his time, according to the artist. It’s the place where he would look at those flowers, relax, contemplate, read the news, draw, paint and so on.

His recent painting series, “Fly,” is also about his studio. This series, which Kim started in 2013, shows the corners, ceilings and walls of his workshop, where all sorts of objects are hanging, including wooden model planes.

“I do a lot of things at my studio. One of them is making those model planes. I make them and hang them from the ceiling,” Kim said.

The exhibition features the actual planes from Kim’s studio.

Kim also likes to bring found objects to his studio -- things he buys at markets or picks up on the beach. If he cannot take something home, he takes a picture of it and uses it as inspiration for a future painting. This is how he paints landscapes as well.

“It’s not only model planes I have hung from the ceiling. I have all kinds of objects hanging from the ceiling, things that I collected outside,” Kim said. “Someone may ask why, but I think I just get drawn into things to which many people don’t pay attention. This could be my obsession. I don’t know. But they have become the objects of my paintings anyway.”

According to PKM Gallery President Park Kyung-mee, the title refers to Kim’s artistic practices as the canvas is a sort of runway where his daily life’s journey will eventually land.

By Shim Woo-hyun(ws@heraldcorp.com)