
Installation View of The Promise of If, Plateau Samsung Museum, Seoul, 2016
Minouk Lim (b. 1968) is an artist of many forms, and has been creating works that are beyond the boundary of different genres and media, deepening the scope of questions while encompassing writing, music, video, installation and performance as her means of artistic expression. Lim’s work recalls historic losses, ruptures, and repressed traumas. Rooted in language, and specifically the politics of expression, of what has been said and what that, in turn, has silenced, her sculptures, videos, performances, and installations don’t replay past events, rather, they elevate the experiences, memories, and feelings of those sidelined by the political violence of the Korean war and its ensuing process of modernization. Curator Soyeon Ahn has written that Lim’s work “testifies on behalf of the invisible.” Indeed, her projects cast that which has gone lost and missing—be this collective memories or deep feelings of longing and grief--into generative, even hopeful, new forms.
Lim also participated in a number of group exhibitions and biennials including the Asian Art Society Triennial (2020), the Gwangju Biennial (2020 & 2014), the Setouchi Triennale (2016) Sydney and Taipei Biennial (2016), Paris Triennale (2012), Liverpool Biennial (2010), Political populism (Kunsthalle Wien 2015), The Time of Others (Museum of Tokyo, 2010) and Your Bright Future: 12 Contemporary Artists from Korea (LACMA, 2009-2010). Lim’s works are collected at National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Arts, Korea; Gyeonggi Museum of Art; Seoul City Art Museum; Kandist Art Foundation, San Francisco; Walker Art Center; and ArtSonje Center, Korea.
Minouk Lim (b. 1968)
Wind Seal, 2022
Wood cane, cuttlebone, epoxy resin, metal plate
73.23 x 14.17 x 12.6 inches
186 x 36 x 32 cm
Minouk Lim (b. 1968)
Newsroom Portable Keeper, 2012
Buoys, plaster bandage, metal, synthetic hair, thread
79.92 x 15.75 inches
203 x 40 cm
Minouk Lim (b. 1968)
Happy Days, 2011
Powdered cuttlefish bone on velvet
29.53 x 21.65 x .79 inches
75 x 55 x 2 cm
Process video of Portable Keeper Sea, 2020
In this new episode of Dispatches From Korea, Tina Kim Gallery is pleased to share Minouk Lim's creative journey in Jeju Island. The video follows the production process of Lim's recent video work, Portable Keeper Sea (2020). Portable Keeper Sea was included in the group exhibition, Born, A Woman, at Suwon Museum of Art (Suwon, South Korea), which presented a collection of various women’s narratives, intersecting dichotomies, and research, through visual representations of gender politics in relation to Suwon’s history.
Virtual studio visit with Minouk Lim in Korea as she discusses her work, memory, and the importance of preservation.
“Night Shift: 2021 Title Match: Minouk Lim vs. Young-gyu Jang” is a joint exhibition that is organized by the Buk-Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA) every year. The exhibition aims to break the framework and redefine its name, which implies competition, by presenting collaborations between artists from different generations and genres. This year, artist Minouk Lim and musician Young-gyu Jang have been invited to collaborate. Encompassing the boundaries between art, music, exhibition, and media, the two artists propose the word “shift,” which contains the meaning of circulation and coexistence, within the principle of reconstruction. The two expand their perspectives on space and time, tracking what changes, moves, or does not change.
Visit the full virtual reality tour from 'The Real DMZ Project’ on Youtube, available from April 7th to May 23rd.
During the same period of the 13th edition of the Gwangju Biennale, the Gwangju Biennale Foundation presents the GB Commission and MaytoDay projects at the former Armed Forces’ Gwangju Hospital.
Born, A Woman, at the Suwon Museum of Art aims to examine how contemporary women understand themselves through and against such historical burdens to expand their roles and significance. By uncovering the numerous layers of femininity that are embedded in our daily encounters, the exhibition would serve as an opportunity for us to reinstate elided or fragmented narratives, and reawaken senses or moments we may have inadvertently elided.
What to See in N.Y.C. Galleries Right Now
Artist Minouk Lim wants to offer a very different perspective on how one might deal with a grim history whose effects continue to be felt in the present.
by John Yau
During the same period of the 13th edition of the Gwangju Biennale, the Gwangju Biennale Foundation presents the GB Commission and MaytoDay projects at the former Armed Forces’ Gwangju Hospital.
By Harley Wong
By Jason Farago
Featuring Park Chan-Kyong, Minouk Lim, and Suki Seokyeong Kang