Gyul E. Kim (b. 1990, South Korea) explores art through a process of deciphering signs and symbols that through a retrace of one’s steps, allows for self discovery. Kim reconfigures the boundaries of painting by first composing an image and then producing a canvas shaped to match it. This approach disrupts the traditional rectangular frame and flexibly expands possibilities of interpretation.

Drawing from geometric fragments observed in everyday life and the exaggerated visual language of classic animation, Kim develops a distinctive vocabulary of angular, nonconforming forms. This departs from conventional standards and generates a sense of visual dynamism and playfulness that is sourced in the artist’s engagement with marginalization and difference. Rather than resolve the dissonance of language and incomprehensibility, her work embraces ambiguity as points of fascination.