Meet Inside Outside, Upside Down artist Jean Jinho Kim

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Sherman Fairchild Curatorial Intern Oscar Flores-Montero speaks with Juried Invitational Inside Outside, Upside Down artist Jean Jinho Kim about her practice.

Jean Jinho Kim, Courtesy of the artist

Oscar Flores-Montero: How did you know you were an artist? At what age did you start creating?

Jean Kim: I think being exposed to art at a young age has inspired me to become an artist. I started creating art in first grade. After that, I started to take art lessons and competed in art competitions as a child and never stopped painting or making art since then. It wasn’t until I was in highschool that I decided to pursue art as a career.

Jean Jinho Kim, Standing Tall, 2021, Aluminum tubing and wooden probes with base, Courtesy of the artist, on view in the Inside Outside, Upside Down galleries

OFM: What does a typical studio day look like for you?

JK: I spend the day sketching out concept designs and use wire and playdough to create a miniature model. When I am fabricating the pieces, I am usually outdoors. I do a lot of research on the computer for different ideas and approaches.

OFM: Material choice is very intentional in your practice. What inspired your material choice for Standing Tall?

JK: Standing Tall is the first piece that I created in aluminum. This is because of the durable nature of aluminum in comparison to downspout. It is wind resistant and lasts longer outdoors. I wanted to be mindful of where my pieces were being exhibited during the pandemic so that people can enjoy the art without worry and to brighten people’s hearts.

Outdoor installation view of Kim’s work, Courtesy of the artist

OFM: Did the pandemic affect your approach to creating art? If so, how?

JK: Before the pandemic, much of my art was designed for indoor exhibition. Many galleries, artists, and audiences were left in isolation. I shifted my focus from indoor to outdoor and my approach and materials used changed naturally. I love playful colors and wanted to provide a space and a moment to enjoy without worry.

Seeing Differently: Alyson Shotz and linn meyers

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The Phillips Collection engages with local voices by asking community members to write labels in response to works in the collection. Read some here on the blog and also in the galleries of Seeing Differently: The Phillips Collects for a New Century. How do these perspectives help you see differently? What would you write about these artworks?

Installation view of Seeing Differently: The Phillips Collects for a New Century featuring (left to right): Leo Villareal, Scramble, 2011; Alyson Shotz, Allusion of Gravity, 2005

Installation view of Seeing Differently: The Phillips Collects for a New Century featuring (left to right): Leo Villareal, Scramble, 2011; Alyson Shotz, Allusion of Gravity, 2005

Alyson Shotz, Allusion of Gravity, 2005

We have neglected the gift of comprehending things through our senses.—Rudolf Arnheim, Art and Visual Perception

This is an open invitation to experience art and connect with my own experience of seeing and feeling. I let myself go and get lost in this space—in the space that is defined by the piece and the space outside of it. Space defines and shapes everything we do. This sculpture makes me think about how we sense space. I perceive this piece as being very architectural—a form in expansion that defies gravity. I want to live with this form, and I want to live in this form. I want to be able to experience this organic, weightless, and transparent shape every day. I want to rediscover and re-experience what I am feeling now while I sense this form every day.

—Vittorio Gallo, PhD, Chief Research Officer of Children’s National Hospital Research and Centennial Community Advisory Group Member

 

Installation view of Seeing Differently: The Phillips Collects for a New Century featuring (left to right) Henri Matisse, The Egyptian Curtain, 1948; Per Kirkeby, Untitled, 2012; linn meyers, Untitled, 2014

linn meyers, Untitled, 2014

All Roads Lead to the Source

Stand in this drawing’s presence and gaze at this flowy drawing. What does it invoke for you? I can feel the wind shaped by luscious locks of hair; the wind streaming like a diaphanous veil as I stroll through one of DC’s parks. Did you notice that ethereal circle, floating yet anchoring this veil? Did the artist draw each line from this circle to periphery or the other way? Try tracing a single line from the periphery to this circle. If you get lost, take a deep breath and start again from the periphery. Let this be a journey to the source, one breath at a time.

—Dr. Aparna Sadananda, Yoga and Meditation Instructor

Diving Deeper into The Phillips Collection

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2020-21 Sherman Fairchild Fellow Ariana Kaye reflects on her time at The Phillips Collection as the Education + Interpretation Fellow.

Ariana Kaye in the Laib Wax Room

Over the 2020-2021 year, I served as The Phillips Collection’s Education + Interpretation Fellow. The past year has been unique, to say the least, and the most common question I would get is, “How do you work for a museum remotely”? Well, to sum it up, it involved many Zoom calls, remote research, reading books and PDFs, watching videos, reading artist testimonies, and writing blog posts.

During my fellowship, I got to dive deeper into works in the permanent collection and the Seeing Differently centennial exhibition and give each work on display its own individual research attention. This is something I don’t think I would have been able to do if I was in person. Often, I researched works that entered the museum’s collection within the past five to six years that had not yet been given their own context within the broader collection. I wrote blog posts about my encounters with these works, such as Gladys Wik Elder, and also wrote about events that occurred during the museum’s centennial year that corresponded with works on view such as John Edmonds’s Hood 2. I also had the honor of visiting artist Oren Eliav’s studio and interviewing him.

One of the best parts of the virtual fellowship was the ability to attend meetings of all departments through Zoom that I would not have been able to join otherwise. I got to participate in curatorial discussions, event planning, as well as education and community engagement updates. I also got to help develop educational content that was then uploaded to the Phillips’s new website. Additionally, I had the pleasure of helping with some special projects, such as the Roz Jacobs Tribute, contributed research on Latinx art to the Duncan Phillips Lecture with Arlene Dávila, and assisted in preparing kits for our summer teacher institute led by our PK-12 education staff.

I am immensely grateful to The Phillips Collection for this unique and fulfilling opportunity!