Kim Haejin

1983 Born in Busan, Korea

2008 Graduated from the Fine Art Department of Dongeui University with a bachelor's degree

2010 Graduated from the Fine Art Department of Dongeui University with a master's degree

Currently works and lives in Busan

SOLO EXHIBITION

2015

Kim Haejin Solo Exhibition, Cheongju Art Studio, Cheongju

2014

Busan Youth Art Award, Kongkan Gellery, Busan

GROUP EXHIBITION

2015 

2015 Art Nova 100, Beijing

KLEINE ENTDECKUNGEN, Frise Gallery, Hamburg

2014

Ghost Memories, Cheongju Art Studio, Cheongju

Super Match, Schema Art Museum, Cheongju

2013

Façade Busan, Busan Museum of Art, Busan

Seek & Desire, Gyeongnam Museum of Art, Changwon

Breathe, Sungkok Museum of Art, Seoul

Kim Haejin doesn’t paint views from rooftops, rather he paints rooftops themselves. His work does not show a viewpoint as a place from which one can view the world, but rather they reveal the place where perspective itself begins. Yet this perspective cannot go anywhere. It is an isolated roof, so there is no place for perception to reach. This is not a place where any life exists, yet conceptually the space exists, with a rooftop lying in a most minimal reality. In a situation where reality cannot be accepted or denied, one finds a rooftop. While solidly and firmly denying the perception of anything, and seemingly not allowing anything to be seen, Kim allows himself to be seen. It appears that there is nothing — though perhaps an afterimage of life in poverty, a laundry-line, a clothes drying rack, a plastic water bottle, a jar, an undergarment, an air conditioner, a T.V. antenna, or some other shabby item can be clearly and simplistically seen. The scars left on patched cement and an imprint of a puddle left by the rain are exaggerated. That is all. With just this, he exceeds the depictions done by most artists. We find no story about the city in the picture. Even the common images of architectural structuresare completely excluded. What liesbeneath the rooftop is never suggested; it remains an object ofspeculation and imagination. -Kang Sunhak (Art Critic)