Yikwon Peter Kim: Inevitable Progression III


Focus Gallery

September 11 – November 13, 2021

(extended through January 8, 2022)

 

Inevitable Progression III features mixed media works on paper, sculpture and a video installation by Yikwon Peter Kim who explores process, spirituality, community and performance in his artistic practice.


A former student of Bob Nunn at North Lake College in the late ’80s, Kim went on to earn a BFA from Southern Methodist University and an MFA from University of Pennsylvania. Kim has been invited to participate in a number of high-profile projects including “New York 8” in Shanghai, China (2015) and “STOP, UNRAVEL, ABSORB” in New York City (2016). In 1995, Kim created “Art is Me, Art is You,” an ongoing performing art series that he’s staged in many cities over the years.

Performances include a 2010 iteration inspired by 1992’s LA riots, performed in conjunction with the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea’s 30th Anniversary Celebration.


In 2014, Kim was invited to produce a public art performance project for the DUMBO Arts Festival in Brooklyn, New York. There he coordinated a performance as part of the “Art is Me, Art is You” initiative in which artists walked over the Brooklyn Bridge into Lower Manhattan, and he also produced a documentary film of the project. That same year in Irving, an “Art is Me, Art is You” walk was staged with both faculty and students from North Lake College. Previous “Art is Me, Art is You” street art walks have also been staged in New York, Philadelphia and in Yan Bian, China in 2006 at Kim’s direction.


Locally, Kim has produced and installed three installation art projects in the Mercedes Benz Finance Service Building in Fort Worth and was invited as a guest speaker for North Lake College’s Arts and Literature Festival in Irving, where his one-person show “Tiffany Blue & Black” was exhibited in the NLC Gallery.


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About the Artist

I am trained as a painter, printmaker, sculptor and combined media artist. In my roles as a curator, public art program organizer, art consultant, gallery director and community leader I have acquired extensive work experience collaborating with local communities as well as international artists in the name of promoting social responsibility and peaceful co-existence. As a working artist, I have as my foundation an interest in understanding relationships between the arts and cultural responsibility -- a symbiosis which establishes the significant meaning of human interaction in our communities. 

 

One motivation for artists is to create an art object as a way of expression. That motivation can be a powerful spirit that may interact in human relations. This experience challenges to me to examine the significant meaning of human interaction in a culture in which I live and work.

 

I strongly believe that artists have the invisible power that can lead our society and can reach out to influence the way people live their lives. As a result, I am compelled to reveal the power that exists in my art practices. This revelation is important not only to express my concept and the exigencies of my own creative art practice, but also its spiritual significance and impact on others.


Public art projects, performance and installation art are important in my art practice, not only to express my experience and its meaning but to interact with empathy and participate in the artwork through mundane activities. It is clear to me the power of expression can be experienced in the use of human interaction, i.e., my performance in a public setting. I believe that the physical presence in the process of the object being created is to challenge and to activate its reason to act. Any time, any reason, and any act of my participation in mundane activities can be a bridge to the experience of another life.