Solo Exhibitions (Brief)

Kim has been presented by solo exhibitions including 《POINT AT INFINITY》 (Cheongju Art Studio, Cheongju, 2022), 《ASSY》 (All Time Space, Seoul, 2021), 《RAY-OUT》 (Soshowroom, Seoul, 2017), and 《1448 Illusions》 (Space 291, Seoul, 2015).

Group Exhibitions (Brief)

Kim has also participated in numerous group exhibitions, including 《Synthetic Fever》 (Coreana Museum of Art, Seoul, 2025), Unfold X 2024 《2084: A Space Odyssey》 (Culture Station Seoul 284, Seoul, 2024), 《Art AI》 (Ulsan Art Museum, Ulsan, 2024), 《The 22nd SONGEUN Art Award Exhibition》 (SONGEUN, Seoul, 2022), and 《NEXT CODE 2022》 (Daejeon Museum of Art, Daejeon, 2022).

Awards (Selected)

In 2023, Kim was selected as the first prize winner of “New Hero” by Public Art magazine.

Residencies (Selected)

Kim has been selected for various artist residency programs, including the SeMA Nanji Residency (2024), the K’ARTS Studio (2023), and the Cheongju Art Studio (2022).

Originality & Identity

Hyun-seok Kim’s artistic practice begins with an inquiry into the nonlinear development of digital technology and the ways in which it shapes the relationship between images and human perception. In his early series Meaningless Movements towards Perfection (2015), he presented the phenomenon of digital deterioration caused by repetitive copying and transmission of data, suggesting that digital images, like physical matter, also accumulate time and ultimately decay. This work critiques the myth of technological perfection by addressing digitality through a new materialist perspective.

Subsequently, Kim expanded his conceptual framework to address the problem of "illusion" that emerges at the boundary between technology and human perception. In the exhibition 《Ray-Out》(Soshowroom, 2017), the 'Wallpaper' series experimented with how illusory images extracted and recombined from fragmented system files in a broken hard drive could be embodied onto physical substrates. This process deepened an ontological reflection on images by linking their essence to the metaphor of "death" as seen in funerary culture.

Since 2020, Kim has explored the algorithmic conditions of image generation and data reconstruction under the concept of "interpolation." In the solo exhibition 《Structure of Phantom》(O’NewWall E’Juheon, 2020), his work Reversed Illusionism examined the intersection between the ideology and materiality of architecture, where illusion and substance cross. In the subsequent exhibition 《ASSY》(All Time Space, 2021), he conducted experiments that replaced image generation algorithms with typing interfaces, extending into nonlinear mappings between language and visual images as an expanded form of "interpolation."

In his recent works, Kim employs generative AI to explore irreversible narrative structures and the conditions of human-machine collaboration. As seen in the 'MEMORIES' (2025/2023/2021) series, Sword of Damocles (2022), and Octopus is a Screen (2024), he integrates digital materialism with AI narratology to investigate how technology and humans co-evolve. His perspective is directed not at technology itself, but at the structural mechanisms of human-technology interaction.

Style & Contents

To visualize the deterioration and disappearance of digital images, Kim has actively utilized flat printing technologies such as lambda printing. In Meaningless Movements towards Perfection (2015), he visualized the distortion and collapse of image surfaces through pixel-level repetitive scaling manipulations. This work marked the starting point of his technical experiments in visualizing the physical traces of digital data manipulation.

The subsequently developed 'Wallpaper' series was a transitional experiment in transferring fragmented data extracted from damaged disks onto analog materials like paper and canvas. On these traditional painting substrates, digital illusions were printed in reverse, peeled, and gradually faded or eroded. Thus, the boundary between digital and physical matter was multilayered and disturbed through physical contact.

Entering the 2020s, Kim’s experiments with text-based interfaces became more pronounced. In the solo exhibition 《ASSY》, he designed an interface that generates images through typing, combining 2,928 font cells constructed using dithering algorithms and CGA palettes to create multilayered surfaces of image-language. In this process, the act of typing substitutes for algorithmic image generation logic, functioning as the artist's unique irregular system of language-image hybridization.

In Sword of Damocles and Octopus is a Screen, Kim integrates AI-based text-image-sound generation models (GPT-3, DALL·E-2, etc.) with interactive XR and installation systems to simulate human-technology interaction. In particular, Octopus is a Screen merges early computer interfaces with biological metaphors (the octopus), allowing participants to physically experience future human-technology coevolution through sculptural installation.

Topography & Continuity

Throughout his career, Kim has consistently maintained thematic concerns with the imperfection of digital images, data deterioration, and the translatability between media. His archaeological approach to excavating and reassembling the material traces of digital technology has served as a central narrative axis from his early works to the present. At the same time, by treating technology not as a fleeting trend but as a subject of ontological inquiry, he has established a distinct position within the contemporary media art field.

Kim’s formal experiments have rapidly expanded from lambda prints and canvas to typing-image interfaces, and further into AI-based interactive VR installations. In particular, through recent works such as the 'MEMORIES' series, Sword of Damocles, and Octopus is a Screen, he has advanced nonlinear narrative experiments and integrative media scripting based on generative AI, evolving toward a philosophical aesthetics of technology.

At present, Kim is positioning himself as a next-generation artist of digital materialism, critically synthesizing the materiality of digital technology and the narrative capacities of AI algorithms. His work suggests new intersections in the fields of global media art, technology philosophy, and AI art, securing growing international prospects.

Looking ahead, Kim’s practice is expected to deepen his exploration of structural mechanisms of AI, XR, and human-nonhuman collaboration, opening new trajectories for artistic practice in the post-digital transition era. In particular, his consistent inquiry into the organic contextualization of technology will continue to pose central questions for aesthetics in the age of AI.