Solo Exhibitions (Brief)

Dew Kim has held solo exhibitions including 《The Last Scene》 (Alternative Space LOOP, Seoul, 2023), 《I Surrender》 (Various Small Fires, Seoul, 2023), 《Apocalypse Kiss》 (Fragment Gallery, Moscow, 2021), 《Dear Fear》(out_sight, Seoul, 2020), among others.

Group Exhibitions (Brief)

Dew Kim has held solo exhibitions including 《The Last Scene》 (Alternative Space LOOP, Seoul, 2023), 《I Surrender》 (Various Small Fires, Seoul, 2023), 《Apocalypse Kiss》 (Fragment Gallery, Moscow, 2021), 《Dear Fear》(out_sight, Seoul, 2020), among others.

Residencies (Selected)

Dew Kim has participated in numerous residency programs, including the DOOSAN Gallery International Residency Program, ISCP (New York, USA, 2023), the SeMA Nanji Residency (2022), and the MMCA Residency Goyang (2021).

Collections (Selected)

Kim’s works are held in collections such as the MMCA Art Bank, the Sunpride Foundation in Hong Kong, and The Here and There Collective in New York.

Originality & Identity

Dew Kim’s practice has developed through an exploration of the meaning of those excluded from the boundaries of normativity and the intense energy that emerges from such exclusion. In his early work Purple Kiss ♡(2018), he depicted the evolution of Homo sapiens into posthumans through his shaman and K-pop idol persona, HornyHoneydew, examining the intersections of gender, sexuality, religion, and science. The artist focuses on dismantling binary gender roles in Korean society by combining the non-binary gender concepts of shamanism with the popular symbols of K-pop.

In his 2019 solo exhibition 《Fire and Faggot》(Artist Residency TEMI), Kim set fire as an ambivalent force of creation and destruction, unfolding a symbolic narrative in which those persecuted in Christian history are sublimated through a ritual of fire. Here, fire is reinterpreted as both a medieval tool of execution and a shamanic medium in Korean tradition for transporting souls to another realm.

In his 2020 solo exhibition 《Dear Fear》(out_sight), Kim explored the mechanisms of taboo, power, and fear through sadomasochism. Through this exhibition, he constructed a world of “bodies without organs” within his autobiographical fantasy, revealing the truths concealed beneath the surface of taboo and social order.

In his recent solo exhibitions 《I Surrender》(Various Small Fires, 2023) and 《The Last Scene – Expanding as It Breaks》(Alternative Space LOOP, 2023), he addressed scenes where Christianity, queerness, and K-pop clash and intersect. In 《I Surrender》, opposing concepts such as the sacred and the profane, domination and submission, are united in physical form, while 《The Last Scene》 layers voguing with the Stations of the Cross to propose the possibility of an alternative protective space for queer communities.

Style & Contents

Dew Kim’s work is grounded in a multi-media expansion that spans sculpture, installation, video, and performance. In the early Purple Kiss ♡(2018), he combined single-channel video and performance to stage a virtual persona, with the narrative within the video and the installation’s spatial presentation organically intertwined.

In FF36(2019) and Welcome(2019), he blended heterogeneous materials such as laser-cut stainless steel, digitally printed fabric, and talismans, embodying both shamanistic and political qualities. This use of materials reinforced the visual representation of fire and its ritual symbolism, creating spaces that are at once sensory and symbolic.

In 《Tangible Error》(d/p, 2020), he combined music performance and installation to reinterpret the Sumerian myth of Ishtar, while in 《Dear Fear》 he used industrial materials such as stainless steel, silicone, and LED lighting to merge body fragments—genitals, anuses, hands, and feet—with structural forms. Through this, he materially manifested the contrast between oppression and liberation, taboo and pleasure.

More recently, he has juxtaposed religious iconography with corporeality by combining Gothic architectural elements such as stained glass, wooden frames, and iron bars with silicone “flesh.” In Meta Temple(2022) and LOOK(2022) from 《The Last Scene》, he employed voguing movements and digital filters to create participatory experiences in which the audience’s bodies and faces are projected into the work, closely integrating performance and media art.

Topography & Continuity

Dew Kim is one of the most active artists in contemporary Korean art exploring the intersection of queerness, religion, and popular culture. He disrupts the binary norms and taboo structures of Korean society with diverse codes such as shamanism, K-pop, Christianity, and BDSM, constructing new narratives through the mediums of the body and ritual.

His practice has expanded its thematic range by redefining his persona, twisting conventions and cultures, and flexibly transforming the role of the shaman. In particular, his consecutive solo exhibitions in 2023 deepened the relationship between religion, queerness, and popular culture through the refinement of his sculptural language and the complexification of his symbolic systems.

Kim’s work is expanding into experiments with the structural similarities between K-pop and religious rituals, participatory corporeality through digital media, and the construction of post-binary social configurations. It is expected that he will continue to dismantle the boundaries between social taboo and sacredness on both domestic and international stages, presenting diverse experiments in open and participatory ways, and solidifying his position as an artist who continuously creates new “ritualistic stages” for marginalized beings within contemporary visual culture.