2009.2.16
It is good to have many dreams. It is even better to achieve them.
Kim Chang-il, Arario Gallery president, is one of those fortunate people who has had many of his dreams fulfilled.
His start was ordinary, working at his mother's express bus terminal after college. But not being able to suppress his deep interest in art - even though he did not study it formally - Kim succeeded in establishing one of Korea's finest art galleries eight years later. One by one, he collected impressive art pieces and soon the art industry came to recognize him as a high-profile art collector.
Kim is now one of the biggest figures in the world art market. He was the first Korean ever to make the list of the world's 100 most powerful collectors, as selected by British magazine Art Review. He has also been included in many other lists by foreign art magazines since 2005.
But his ambitions did not end there. At the age of 48, Kim decided to become an artist himself. Kim is also known for his third profession, as an artist, with the professional name "Ci Kim." He has been featured in five solo exhibitions so far.
 |
Kim's latest exhibition, "To Make a Rainbow," is currently at Arario Gallery in Cheonan, 83.6 kilometers south of Seoul. For the exhibition, Kim recreated his paintings and installation works from the past, and added little bits of "Ci Kim Charms" - in the words of the curator - by throwing tomatoes on them.
The artist threw tomatoes on canvases carrying outdated images like Time Magazine covers with war photos or Audrey Hepburn portraits. Juice and chunks of the tomato oozed out, became gooey and dried up over time, growing fungus which disappears and comes back depending on the weather.
Strange traces and colors all over the canvas make the work look somewhat ancient. It is Kim's "rainbow" which symbolizes time and memories. The act of throwing tomatoes signifies the tests and trials he meets as an artist while finding his rainbow and taking steps to achieve his dreams.
"All my three professions follow my instincts, and are linked to one another," Kim said in an e-mail interview.
"Going over interior designs and drawings as a businessman and training my eyes to be an accurate art collector were all fertilizers that made Ci Kim," he said.
Regardless of one's dreams and talents, however, conservative Korean society is not an easy place for a businessman who did not even major in art to suddenly gain approval as an artist. Kim was no exception, as people often cast a doubtful eye at him.
"Those glances are the source of my energy," Kim said.
"Making big shifts in professions are not strange in other countries, but it still is in Korea. I will work even harder, to overcome those gazes," Kim said.
It might be his surviving strategy, but Kim is modest. He does not yet sell his work inside Korea or even sign it because of the public perception of him as a businessman or collector.
"I don't want to cause misunderstandings that my works are sold through inappropriate personal networks based on my career. But I do have plans on selling them in Korea sometime in the future." Only some foreign buyers and overseas art museums like the one in Leipzig, Germany, possess Kim's works.
"After 10 years? I will probably be doing what I'm doing now, running the gallery, collecting work, and most of all, doing my art," he said. Ci Kim's exhibition runs through March 29 at Arario Gallery in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province. For more information, call (041) 551-5100 or visit www.arariogallery.com
By Park Min-young
댓글 없음:
댓글 쓰기