Kim Minja
金敏子

Artist Statement

When I began to paint a mountain on canvas in 1990, it was close to a green-toned mountain that we could easily find anywhere. Mountain is the birthplace and home to return after death for human beings.

During my fifteen-year devotion to the mountain, my mountains have evolved from a natural mountain to a supernatural one as a mountain of soil and a mountain of ice (or iceberg).  Mountain of soil is a place where human beings are born and destined to return, while mountain of Ice (or iceberg) is never easy to return and, therefore, invincible.  I intended to represent purity and sublimity and an invincible state through an iceberg, and presented the soil as the starting point and the essence of human life through a mountain of soil.

Through my iceberg painting, I wish to convey a redemptive message that we should turn our eyes to the world of purity and loftiness despite being contaminated by turbidity and impurity to survive, and that we should defend the purity of our soul and nature against the challenging circumstances such as war, materialism, and environmental pollution.

Mountain of Ice  冰山
Mixed Media And Acrylic Color
2007

Minja Kim was born in Seoul Korea. Graduated Master of Fine Arts Degree at Hong Ik University, Korea.  She had attended art course at the Fontainebleau Ecole des Beaux-Arts, France.  Recipient of  Top Prize in the 5th Award for Rising Artists at the age of 21. Her early works were mostly prints as well as paintings. She was one of founder members of Korea Print Artists Association. She had fifteen Solo Exhibitions and many Group Exhibitions in cities worldwide including New York and Paris. Currently, Minja Kim  teaches Fine Arts Education at the Korea National University of Education. She is also a board member of Korean Fine Arts Association.

Her main interest is the mountains, especially the mountain of ice and the mountain of soil. Her fifteen years devotion to a series of mountains produced a result of the duality of their existence as the mountain of ice and the mountain of soil. She intended to represent serenity and mysteriousness and an invincible state through the mountain of ice, and to present the soil as the starting point and the essence of human life through the mountain of soil.

金敏子出生于韩国汉城。考获韩国弘益大学艺术硕士文凭，曾在法国楓丹白露艺术學院进修。21岁时荣获第五届新秀画家首奖。她早期的作品以版画和绘画为主，是韩国版画协会发起人之一。曾经个展15次，作品曾在纽约和巴黎国际性联展展出。目前在韩国师范大学任教。她是韩国纯美术协会执委成员之一。

她对山峰，尤其是-冰山和土山，特别感兴趣。15年来，她专心投入于创造冰山和土山二合一的效果。她的目的是以冰山代表宁静和神秘；以泥土作为起点，土山代表人类生命精粹。