Press Release

Ever since he took up permanent residence in New York in 1957, Po Kim has strived for an art needless of gradual development, grand overarching themes, or the branding of a "signature style." Although Kim's first major stylistic pathways derived in part from his new American artistic environment, virtually all of his subsequent imagery, while offering superficial similarities to American trends, was based more on personal choices than on outside influences. "Po Kim: Six Decades" offers a mini-retrospective of sorts, touching upon many of the diverse ideas and techniques of this inquisitive and individualistic artist.

The style that Kim initially embraced was Abstract Expressionism, and he did so with vigor and confidence, stating that Abstract Expressionism "suited his psychological mood" at the time, as it offered "complete freedom." Kim's paintings of the late 1950s display unrestrained vigor and visually exciting, rapidly applied strokes. The seemingly effortless suppleness and fluidity of the marks are outgrowths of Kim's mastery of calligraphy, a source seen most directly in a series of more than 180 small paintings on paper the artist produced in 1960-61. In the latter half of the 1960s, Kim practiced a personal version of color field painting that generally embraced the large scale and chromatic focus of the style. Kim explored this mode through canvas-filling washes, stripes and pads of colors in abutting or superimposed arrangements, and semi-geometric forms.

After more than a decade of producing masterful variations within abstraction, Kim felt he had reached a dead-end. His personal solution was to go back to basics, to start to draw realistic images, straightforwardly and even didactically, "like a student." Thus he embarked on a long period of realistic still life imagery, presented with simplicity and attention to detail. Working in colored pencil, Kim drew apples, oranges, radishes and the like, either singly or in group arrangements. These works are remarkable for their technical proficiency, and the sense of Zen-like concentration that Kim brought to bear on their creation.

Around 1980, Kim entered a long phase of personal variations on several themes that continues to this day, which can be related to so-called "expressionist figuration," painting that maintains subject matter yet is presented in the freely brushed techniques of Abstract Expressionism. Within this mode, Kim's art has demonstrated that an impressive and coherent (yet constantly transmuting) oeuvre can be built from the essences of pictorial expression: imagery, color, and artistic inspiration. After 2000, while continuing his figurative interests, Kim explored two other variations-one essentially technical, the other basically stylistic. The former is seen in a series of works incorporating ordinary colored paper tape, transformed by Kim into lively stick-figures, animals, and abstract imagery. The latter comprises a set of total abstractions that exude an amazing sense of bursting energy, enlivened by rich areas of dripping pigment, and loops of pigment that fairly somersault across the surfaces from side to side.

On the occasion of this exhibition, Po Kim's inventiveness continues into the second decade of the 21" century and into his own tenth decade of life.