Jin Soo Kim is an installation artist who lives and works in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, Illinois.

Early life

Jin Soo Kim (born 1950) is a South Korean installation artist recognized for her work exploring immigrant cultural identity and labor. Kim's upbringing in post-war Korea and observation of traditional gender inequality motivated her to live a different life based on deep interests in arts since adolescence. In 1974, Kim received her B.S. from

Seoul National University Seoul National University (SNU; ) is a public university, public research university in Seoul, South Korea. It is one of the SKY (universities), SKY universities and a part of the Flagship Korean National Universities. The university's main c ...

and left for Los Angeles, U.S. Having studied at

Western Illinois University Western Illinois University (WIU) is a public university in Macomb, Illinois, United States. It was founded in 1899 as Western Illinois State Normal School. As the normal school grew, it became Western Illinois State Teachers College. Once West ...

while working as a nurse, she earned an MFA in 1983 from the

School of the Art Institute of Chicago The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is a Private university, private art school associated with the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to an art students' cooperative founded in 1866, which gr ...

, where she has been a professor of sculpture since 1990. Though her art was not exhibited widely in the 1980s because it differed so widely from the popular styles, she began exhibiting at the

Chicago Cultural Center The Chicago Cultural Center, opened in 1897, is a Chicago Landmark building operated by Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. The Cultural Center houses the city's official reception venue, where the Mayor of Chicago, M ...

and the

Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago The Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago is a contemporary art art gallery, museum near Water Tower Place in the Near North Side, Chicago, Near North Side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. The museum, which was established in 1967, is on ...

. Kim then began to exhibit commercially. She focuses on installation art, whose freedom and ephemerality has engaged her. One of her best known works is ''Stratiformis'', a piece of public art in Catalano Square,

Milwaukee Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...

, completed in 1996. A large work that uses disassembled knitting machines, it signifies the local labor history of the area. She is also known for her ''Body and Shadow'', which re-purposes machine made textiles into a work made by hand, representing the tension between pre-industrial Korean society and Western consumerism.

Awards

Kim has received several fellowships, including

Illinois Arts Council The Illinois Arts Council is a government agency of the state of Illinois formed to encourage development of the arts throughout Illinois. Founded in 1965 by the Illinois General Assembly, the Illinois Arts Council provides financial and technica ...

Fellowships and a

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the feder ...

Fellowship.

Exhibitions

Kim has shown her work worldwide, including at the

;

Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA) in the state of Arizona is a museum in the Old Town district of downtown Scottsdale, Arizona. The museum is dedicated to contemporary art, design, and architecture. The Museum has five galleries t ...

;

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 500,000 objects. Located near the Prospect Heig ...

;

High Museum of Art The High Museum of Art (colloquially the High) is the largest museum for visual art in the Southeastern United States. Located in Atlanta, Georgia (on Peachtree Street in Midtown, the city's arts district), the High is 312,000 square feet (28, ...

, Atlanta; Gallery Hyundai, Seoul;

Walker Art Center The Walker Art Center is a multidisciplinary contemporary art center in the Lowry Hill, Minneapolis, Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is one of the most-visited modern and contemporary art museums in ...

, Minneapolis;

Madison Museum of Contemporary Art The Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMoCA), formerly known as the Madison Art Center, is an independent, non-profit art museum located in downtown Madison, Wisconsin. MMoCA is dedicated to exhibiting, collecting, and preserving modern and c ...

, Madison, WI; and the National Museum of Contemporary Art, South Korea.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kim, Jin Soo Multimedia artists Women installation artists Seoul National University alumni 1950 births Living people 21st-century women artists