Woonghyun Kim
Woonghyun Kim (b. 1986) is a Korean artist working across video, performance, and installation. His practice integrates elements drawn from science and technology, popular culture, history, and social systems, examining how contemporary subjectivity is shaped by mediated environments and bodily extensions.
Kim’s work often explores the relationship between the human body and technological apparatuses - prosthetics, medical devices, tools of enhancement, and interfaces that mediate perception and identity. By assembling and recontextualizing such objects, he constructs visual narratives that reflect on the fragility, adaptability, and contingency of the human condition. His use of video is central to this inquiry, allowing time, repetition, and duration to function as structural elements rather than illustrative devices. Audience experience is a key consideration in Kim’s media practice. He approaches narrative construction through what he describes as “game thinking,” emphasizing active engagement and perceptual participation rather than linear storytelling. His works are designed to be encountered spatially and temporally, often foregrounding states of suspension, looping, and fragmented viewing.
Kim has presented multiple solo exhibitions at Gallery 2, Seoul, and Arario Museum (Dongmun Motel I), Jeju. His work has been exhibited at major institutions including the Gwangju Biennale (Gwangju Pavilion), the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA), Busan Museum of Art, Buk-Seoul Museum of Art, and Doosan Gallery, among others. He is the initiator of PERFORM (2016–2021), a long-term moving-image platform presented at Ilmin Museum of Art, Asia Culture Center (ACC), and Buk-Seoul Museum of Art. Kim has participated in residency programs at MMCA Changdong and SeMA Nanji, and is a recipient of the Ilhyun Travel Grant Grand Prize. He received his BFA and MFA in Painting from Kookmin University, Seoul.
WOONGHYEON KIM (b. 1984, KR)
Lives and works in Seoul, KR
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024 CIRKUS, Gallery 2, Seoul, KR
2022 Crumpled Man, Gallery 2, Seoul, KR
2017–2018 Hell bovine & pony, Arario Museum - Dongmun Motel I, Jeju, KR
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025 Autosave_: An Unofficial History of Our Time, Hongik University Museum, Seoul, KR
2025 Kiaf Seoul, Gallery 2, Seoul, KR
2025 Loop Lab Busan, Busan Museum of Art, Busan, KR
2024 Mudeung: Quiet Tension, Gwangju Biennale Gwangju Pavilion, Gwangju, KR
2023 Seoul Light Gwanghwa, Seoul Metropolitan Government, Seoul, KR
2022 Watch and Chill 2, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), Seoul, KR
2021 Unexpected time in Hometown, Arario Gallery, Cheonan, KR
2020 Disaster Sensibility, Surim Cultural Foundation, Seoul, KR
2019 Subversive Data, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), Seoul, KR
2019 Your Search: Research Services in the Palm of Your Hand, Doosan Gallery, Seoul, KR
2018 Overay / Props, Performplace, Seoul, KR
2017 Seoul Focus 25.7, Buk-Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, KR
2017 Nanji Art Show, Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA), Seoul, KR
2016 Landscape of Intuition, Arario Gallery, Seoul, KR
2015 Goods (Hell Bovine & Pony), Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, Seoul, KR
2014 Project Daejeon: Artist, Daejeon Museum of Art, Daejeon, KR
2014 3D Printing Art, Savina Museum of Art, Seoul, KR
2012 The Counterattack of Media, Busan Museum of Art (Annex), Busan, KR
2011 Absurd Question, Wise Answer, KunstDoc, Seoul, KR
SELECTED PLATFORM DIRECTION & PROGRAMMING
PERFORM (2016–2021), a multi-year moving-image platform presented at Ilmin Museum of Art in Seoul, Asia Culture Center (ACC) in Gwangju, Buk-Seoul Museum of Art in Seoul, among others
Now What? (2023), Buk-Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA), Seoul, KR
‘School Byeol Song Olympiad’ (2023), National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), Seoul, KR
SELECTED RESIDENCIES
2017 Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA) Nanji Residency Program, Seoul, KR
2015 National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA) Changdong Residency, Seoul, KR
AWARDS & SELECTIONS
2016 Selected Artist, Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA), KR
2012 Grand Prize, Ilhyun Travel Grant, Ilhyun Museum of Art, Yang yang, KR
2012 Selected Artist, JoongAng Fine Arts Competition, KR
2011 Selected Artist, In the City, Chungmu Art Center, Seoul, KR
EDUCATION
2014 MFA, Painting, Kookmin University, Seoul, KR
2011 BFA, Painting, Kookmin University, Seoul, KR