Park Yelim, Hong Mihee: Landscape of Traces

A two-person exhibition featuring artists Park Yelim, who creates spontaneous natural forms using ink and sand, and Hong Mihee, who works in low-relief painting through layers and color, will be held at Kimreeaa Gallery from November 4 to November 19, 2022.

This exhibition focuses on the landscapes formed through the traces left in each artist’s working process. Though the two artists work with entirely different materials, their practices echo one another in the way they capture traces drawn from life and nature, unfolding like landscapes on the surface.

Park Yelim expresses natural forms through marks created by sand as it adheres to and falls away from paper in unpredictable ways. The brushstrokes in her process reflect the subtle tremors of the hand and the emotions embedded within them, while the depth conveyed through the layered ink and sand evokes the elemental energy inherent in nature.

Hong Mihee works in a sculptural form of painting—low-relief works that differ from traditional flat paintings—by articulating depth through the texture of brushstrokes and the accumulation of colors and lines. Using the fundamental materials of painting—canvas, paperboard, stretcher bars—she builds countless layers of complementary colors, creating works that invite viewers to engage from multiple perspectives through their own active movement. She describes this process of making as a way of living, leaving traces of her life embedded within the work.

The two artists’ works share the theme of “trace,” coming together in a single space. As viewers encounter Park’s soft yet powerful, lyrical works alongside Hong’s structured, concise compositions emphasizing vertical and horizontal forms, they are invited to follow the traces each artist leaves within their work.

The layered traces on the surfaces of their works reflect the complexity of our own lives, where countless elements intertwine and shape one another