Joon Hee Kim (Ontario, Canada) is an award-winning ceramic artist using her practice to investigate what it is to be human. Kim is interested in the reflections of the immeasurably unique identities that are created through the human experience. She looks to use her compelling ceramic vocabulary to capture and explore our true nature in relation to her story and personal history. Kim’s work pursues new approaches and philosophies in order to understand how our cultural identities may coexist and cultivate the connections.
Kim is originally from South Korea where she worked as an art director before immigrating to Canada to study at Le Cordon Bleu Ottawa Culinary Arts Institute (Canada). However, she found herself drawn to ceramics during her studies at Sheridan College. She went on to receive her MFA from the Chelsea College of Arts (London, UK), where she received the Cecil Lewis Sculpture Scholarship. Since the completion of her education Kim has participated in artist-in-residence opportunities around the globe. She has been a resident at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts (Deer Isle, ME), Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park (Japan), Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity Clay Revival (Alberta, Canada), Zentrum für Keramik (Berlin, Germany), Keramikkuenstlerhaus (Neumünster, Germany), and the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts (Helena, MT). Beyond the residency opportunities that Kim has been granted, her work has also garnered her recognition through numerous awards and grants along with a variety of exhibition opportunities. Kim has received the Helen Copeland Memorial Award for six consecutive years from Craft Ontario, numerous grants from Canada Council for the Arts and Ontario Art Council, Best of Ceramics from the Toronto Outdoor Art Fair, and the prestigious Winifred Shantz National Award for an exceptional emerging ceramic artist. Kim has also exhibited internationally including in her most recent solo exhibition You, Me, Us at the KOURI + CORRAO Gallery (Santa Fe, NM).
Artist Statement
My work aesthetically captures humanity in its true form, and how it becomes the reconstruction of new identities in the world. I use the unique language of ceramics, blended with my prospect of identity and voice through the clay, to translate an origin of meaning. I seek the active representation of redefining the historical human form and heritage of beauty in our viable conscious of soul. “Human” is a metaphor central to my work. The human body is seen as a vessel that holds language, lineage, memories, and an archive. Using this figurative expressionism, an evoked depiction materializes the primal notion of newfound empathy, curiosity, and a volatile exploration of human existence and purpose. It is a subversion of heritage and history that allows the collection and reconciliation of various identities, granting a glimpse into a beautiful coexistence in our society. This portrays the various experiences we face; building ourselves with continuing relations with other people’s identities, cultures, and societies, encouraging seeking about how they identify and what they identify with. There is a key focus on the human body, descriptive as a changing system. By strongly communicating in its own language, our bodies and spaces are connected by a perceived reality surrounding infinite ways of expression. With reciprocal forms and adornments that analyze identities that we seek, the resultant richly detailed sculpture contains a diverse tongue whispering hidden parts of our identities. I crave to be a conveyor of new narratives in human experienced phenomena and transformation of objects into a new visual language that goes beyond formalities to celebrate depicting individuals.