Myong Hi Kim (b. 1949, Seoul, Korea) lives and works in New York and an abandoned schoolhouse in a tiny mountain village in Kangwon Province, South Korea. Highly regarded for her unconventional oil pastel on chalkboard works, she is best known for her multi-layered symbolist landscapes and portraits that fuse image, text and myth in imaginative narratives that span time and place. Raised in South Korea, Japan, and England, she had a peripatetic childhood. This experience has led her to explore contemporary issues such as territorial division, rural exodus, migration, and displacement. She was among the first wave of South Korean artists to move to New York, where she lived from 1975. She now divides her time between New York and South Korea. She graduated from Seoul National University and studied at Pratt Institute, New York. Her recent solo exhibitions include: Art Projects International, New York (2020, 2015, 2012) and Gallery Hyundai, Seoul (2012). Her work has been exhibited at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea; Seoul Museum of Art, Korea; Ho-Am Art Museum, Seoul; Whanki Museum, Seoul; Ewha Women’s University Museum, Seoul; Jeonbuk Museum of Art, Korea; American University Museum, Washington, DC; and most recently at SOMA Museum of Art in Seoul, and the Gangwon Triennale 2021. Her work is represented in major public collections including the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea; National Assembly, Seoul; Whanki Museum, Seoul; Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, Korea; Seoul Museum of Art, Korea; and Daejeon Museum of Art, Korea.
