Emerging S. Korean artist to hold solo exhibition in New York

(ATTN: photos available)
By Shin Hae-in
SEOUL, April 22 (Yonhap) -- A series of digital prints by rising South Korean
artist Kim Joon will be exhibited at a New York art house next month as part of
Asian Contemporary Art Week 2009 in the United States, the gallery said in a
press release Wednesday.

Kim's first solo exhibition in New York will be held at the Sundaram Tagore
Gallery from May 14 through 27, featuring his trademark subject -- nude bodies
covered in tattoos.
"I am interested in tattoos as a metaphor for hidden desire or a kind of
compulsion engraved into human consciousness," the 43-year-old artist said in the
press release. "Tattoos can reflect individual and collective reality or
displaced desire."
Born in 1966 in Seoul, Kim tattooed his peers while in the Korean military. His
earliest works treat tattoos as socially taboo in Korean society, but his recent
works overturn such negative connotations, presenting tattoos as a vehicle for
transforming the body into a highly aesthetic object.
His headless figures are strewn across bold logos and patterns from luxury brands
such as Ferragamo, Montblanc, and Vivienne Westwood.
Kim, who has showed at various galleries around the world including the National
Taiwan Museum, the Canvas International Art gallery in Amsterdam, the Alexander
Ochs Galleries in Berlin and the Walsh Gallery in Chicago, currently lives and
works in Seoul.
hayney@yna.co.kr
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