Kim Kang-yong (56), a hyperrealist artist widely known as the “brick painter,” is gaining attention in the New York art scene. Last month, one of his works was sold at Sotheby’s Manhattan on the 20th, followed by two more sold at Christie’s the next day, totaling three works auctioned. His painting Reality + Image 601-563 (200 × 133 cm) fetched USD 30,000 (approximately KRW 29 million) at Sotheby’s. His solo exhibition, currently on view at New Hope Gallery in Manhattan through October 14, has also been drawing strong interest.
Kim has been painting bricks since the late 1970s. Initially, he depicted them as they appeared in reality. Later, he developed a technique of applying sand to the canvas and rendering the shadows of bricks, expanding the image onto the sides of the canvas as well. This approach has established a distinctive and original visual language. Local critics note that “although bricks are his primary motif, the bricks depicted in his work are fantastical—serving as windows into another world, and at the same time, windows through which viewers enter his pictorial universe.”
Another reason New York has embraced Kim’s work is its distinctly “New York sensibility”—a visual harmony with the city itself. Kim cites Reality + Image 608-582 as an example, a work composed of thirty small square paintings (30 × 30 cm each) from the Reality + Image 606-566F series arranged in a grid. “I expressed the feeling of New York—where diverse colors coexist—by adding color to the sand,” he explained. “In the future, I plan to create installations with bricks painted on all sides, capturing the image of New York’s forest of buildings.”
Kim moved to New York after turning 50, having already fully developed his artistic vision in Korea. He has since been working there for more than three years. Hwang Yoo-jin, a curator at the Korean Cultural Center New York, commented, “His case is significant in that it presents a new model to the Korean art world—traditionally centered on artists who studied abroad—by demonstrating that meaningful international advancement is still possible even after establishing one’s artistic language domestically.”
Kim graduated from the Department of Western Painting at Hongik University College of Fine Arts in 1978. He began entering the international art scene after participating in the Cologne Art Fair in Germany in 1999. Through art fairs in Chicago, San Francisco, and Art Basel Miami, he has sold more than 150 works. Next year, he is scheduled to hold a solo exhibition at the National Art Museum of China in Beijing.
by. Shin Dong-reap / https://n.news.naver.com/mnews/article/003/0000193233?sid=103