Born in Masan, Gyeongnam in 1954, Kim Yong-Sik earned his Bachelor and Master degree in Painting at Seoul National University. After finishing his degree, he taught in several universities such as Seoul National University and Duksung Women’s University and actively worked on his artwork series, ‘Gesture’. In 1989, wanting to further his artistic spectrum, he was on board to New York. In New York, he entered the graduate school at the School of Visual Arts where he achieved his Master degree in Printmaking and Painting. Returning to Korea in 1992, he became a professor of Painting Department at Sung Shin Women's University. He was the Dean of the Fine Arts College at Sung Shin Women’s University and also the president of Korea Printmaker’s Association. In 2002, he stayed in Melbourne for a year as an exchange professor at RMIT. And in 2010, he was a visiting artist at Taipei National University of the Arts. He is currently a professor of Painting Department in College of Fine Arts at Sung Shin Women’s University. He has had 15 times solo shows in Seoul, New York, Melbourne, Taipei, and Macau and was awarded 'The Prize of Special Description' at Cagnes International Painting Festival in France. He has participated about 300 exhibitions such as Macau Printmaking Triennial (Macau Museum of Art, 2015/2013), Korean Contemporary Art (National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, 2012), Spectrum of Korean Contemporary Art (Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, 2011), Eternal Blinking: Contemporary Art of Korea (Art Gallery, University of Hawaii, 2010), 30 Years of Korean Drawing (Soma Museum, 2010), Korean Contemporary Printmaking 1958-2008 (National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, 2007), Reality of Painting and Sculpture (Gyeongam Art Museum, 2006), Korean Contemporary Art (Qatar, Morocco, 2007), Biennale of Ljubljana Print (1999), and Korean Contemporary Printmaking (National Print Museum of Spain, 1999), Present-Image (1986-1989, Seoul), and Realite Seoul (1987-1989, Seoul). He has also been a committee member of Korean Fine Arts Competition, a board member of Seoul Art Exhibition, and a selection committee member of many international and local art events such as International Biennial Print Exhibit, Taiwan and Macau Printmaking Triennial. Several museums and public places such as National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea; Seoul Museum of Art, Korea; British Museum, UK; Novosibirsk State Art Museum, Russia; Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan; National Taipei University of Education, Taiwan; Yilan Museum of Art, Taiwan; Gyeongnam Art Museum, Korea; Jeju State Museum, Korea; Sungkok Art Museum, Korea; Jincheon Printmaking Museum, Korea; Korea Art Bank; Sung Shin Women’s University, Korea; Duksung Women’s University Museum, Korea, etc. carry his art works in their collection.

The Light Filling the Space of Sublimation and Mediation Lee Seong-Seok Former Chief Curator, Gyeongnam Art Museum In the 1970s, when minimalism art works were the mainstream of Korea, Kim Yong-Sik was studying in the Fine Art College of Seoul National University. At the time, he was educated mainly focused on modernism. Although pursuit of art for art’s sake in the modernist art works had succeeded on extending methods of expression, Yong-Sik felt that it had its limits on communicating with the others. Therefore, he tried to search for fundamental objective of visual arts, which has always been the ‘communication of the mind, thoughts, and/or, imagination’ from classicism to contemporary art, in his art works. Thus, he worked on his art works placing both figurative images and abstract images at the same time. As a result of this, he applied a dramatic effect of ‘misty illusion’ where both figurative and abstract images co-exist in his painting series, ‘Gesture’ in the 1980s. In this series, monotone colors hide and reveal images at the same time and also stimulates the viewers to have ‘fantastic imagination’. This expression method was very fresh and unique and he was awarded with the prize of special description in Cagnes International Festival of Painting (Cagnes, France) and the superior prize in Dong-A Fine Art Festival (Seoul, South Korea) However, after some time, Yong Sik found himself continuing the same method, which led him to decide to go abroad to New York for a new exploration in his late 30s. During his stay in New York, he one day stepped into the aisle where primitive art works were displayed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the powerful aura of primitive art works led him to re-think about the function and the role of visual arts. “The strong power of the primitive art works, which is perceived without any reason or logic, is the most powerful voice among metaphysical beings. It also accompanies reflection of contemporary art which evaluated solely by aesthetic point of view, logic, and, displaying effects.” Such thoughts formed into a unique style of Kim Yong-Sik and in the late 90s, he started his series of works, ‘Eternity and Limitation’. In this series, the co-existence of both figurative and abstract spaces with texts such as, ‘ETERNITY’, ‘BREATHING’, or ‘SPIRIT’ depicts human desire to overcome his or her limitation, in other words, to become ‘eternal’. The life of a human being is to realize one’s wish in life within its limitation that cannot be solved through the ability of a human being such as life and death or success and fail. In other words, our lives are us, mortal beings seeking for the supernatural power to overcome our limits. It is an irony that human beings are seeking for the immortal in a mortal life. To reconcile this ironical situation, Kim Yong-Sik places figurative figures of branches, flower petals, or fruits with geometrical abstract spaces at the same time. This is to represent the co-existence of the visible and the invisible world. The figurative images of branches, flower petals, or fruits symbolize a mortal life. These fragile images of the plants, which have traces of pain in life, may look frail but we can feel their strong will to live, at the same time. They represent the cycle of life, death, and reproduction. The geometrical abstract spaces, which symbolize an immortal life, are scratched by a needle to express the penetration of golden mystic light. The immortal world in Kim Yong-Sik ’s imagination is a world filled with holy light, which moves calmly, where it is filled with pureness and serenity. At a quick glance, his color spaces can merely seem like one-colored spaces, however, the color spaces in Kim Yong-Sik’s works are spaces with many layers. The base layer is a golden color and through the scratched lines of many layers, we can see the golden color, which can be perceived as rays of light. This intensive and time-consuming methods of Kim Yong-Sik may come from the artist’s view of the world, that the light is the origin of life. His works come as a simple structure, however, the simplicity in his works is a purposefully planned simplicity in order to seek moderation and purity that reminds us of Winckemann’s ‘noble simplicity’ (die edle Enfalt). It also seems to have a connection with the extreme reductionism of the minimalists. However, Kim Yong-Sik wanted to express the religious reflection and the sublime beauty in his works. The penetration of golden lights represent eternity, which transcends time and space. The figurative images of weak plants represent human will to overcome the limitation of life, they express the natural state of human, in other words, the will to live eternally. The color that the artist uses in his works reveal the outline of the images, which symbolizes what the artist have written as texts and it also creates an aura that gives a halo effect to the symbol in the work. I must point out that the texts, numbers, and the realistic plant images are the keys to understanding the system of meaning which seems theosophical and mysterious. Texts used in his works such as ‘Eternity’, ‘Breathing’, and etc. represent the artist’s belief, view of the world and also will in life and death in a microscopic point of view and from a macroscopic point of view, it is expressed as a contemplation of the eternal time which has started from the creation of the universe. The unique expression of the complex scratches in his works, which also delivers the charm of a drawing work, seems like one of the ways for the artist to overcome the limitation of a two-dimensional surface and to seek change in his works. Kim Yong-Sik’s artistic world does not lean onto either the east or the west, he has a will to explore his unique thoughts and art style. In the figurative images of a plant, one can feel the moral state of human life as plants also have its inevitable ending just like human. On the other hand, from the T-shaped, O-shaped frames, which are perfect in aesthetic from, and the golden color, which is a sacred color, one can feel the eternal power, which transcends mortal life. These symbolic images create a purified, mystic, and serene environment. It is as if we are entering a sacred, religious space when entering the space filled with Kim Yong-Sik’s works. His works transform the space into a metaphysical space. The components depict the Zen state through simplicity and restraint and free the viewers from their thoughts and lead them to their natural state. In Kim Yong-Sik’s process of making his art works, there lies strategy, critical planning and reasoning. From the artist’s space of perfection and the strictly divided geometrical shapes, one can feel the beauty of restraint, which is like the aesthetic of minimalistic art works. However, the simplicity in Kim Yong-Sik’s works transcends the external sensitivity of the minimal art works, stepping up to another level. Furthermore, he brings in ‘intellect’ and ‘logic’ to his art works even though the method of visual art is ‘sensitivity’ and ‘imagination’ and this seems to demand correspondence within our inner self. This also falls in line with a quote an artist once said; “Creating a work of art is a hard work since it has to be accompanied by analysis and logic as much as passion.” Behind Kim Yong-Sik’s elegant form of frames, bright colors and light coming out from his scratched surface, there lies a confession of a human being’s insight and the will of seeking the ‘eternal’. Through his art works, Kim Yong-Sik wants to aim for the spiritual, meaningful state. He is indeed an artist that expresses the light of hope and this proves that visual art is an experience that can fill the heart of many people. Lee Seong-Seok was the former chief cu