Los Angeles artist Soo Kim isn't content merely photographing expansive landscapes or intimate portraits - she takes her rich, large-scale photos and cuts into them to convey "different degrees of stillness and action that [can] occupy an image" (from the show's press release).
The Corners of the Sea, her first solo exhibit at Julie Saul Gallery, presents portraits of a woman and a man shot to suggest a "sense of intimacy, quiet, and stillness." Kim then slices into the portraits with "'actions' taken from comic books" showering her female model with what appear to be gentle waves of water.
Her sweeping landscapes of Reykjavik, Iceland, and Dubrovnik, Croatia were "photographed to describe two different cities and ways of looking - one from a stationary position, while the other is taken by traveling along the wall that circumnavigates the city." Densely-populated, seaside towns have sections of their architecture cut out, dramatically emphasizing shape, light, and shadow. Two photos of a green, lofty mountain have detailed forest scenes meticulously carved into them.
Born in South Korea in 1969, Kim moved to Los Angeles in 1980 and received her MFA in critical writing, art and film from the California Institute of the Art. The Corners of the Sea is Kim's "premier exhibition on the East Coast" but judging by her impressive, skillful works, it certainly won't be her last. Learn more at Saulgallery.com. Through February 27th.
(They walk a while in silence), 2009
(They walk a while in silence) close-up, 2009
Fall, 2009
Me and my brother, 2009
Teenage dreams, 2009
Untitled (Gold woods), 2008
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