“How to become a rock” Installation view at Leeum Museum of Art ©Leeum Museum of Art
How to become a rock, a solo exhibition by artist Kim Beom (b. 1963), will be on view from July 27 to December 3 at Leeum Museum. This is the artist’s first solo exhibition in 13 years, following a solo exhibition at the Art Sonje Center in 2010, and will feature more than 70 works from the early 1990s to mid-2010.
Kim is an artist who is exceptionally aware of the other life force of everyday objects or materials. The artist recognizes the gap between the visible and the reality and reshapes objects to disturb conventional thinking. Such is the case with the works in this exhibition, including < Pregnant Hammer > (1995) with a protruding handle, < A Rock That Learned the Poetry of JUNG Jiyong >, in which recites JUNG Jiyong’s poems to a stone, and < Objects Being Taught They are Nothing but Tools >, which consists of objects sitting side by side in front of a blackboard. Other works include the artist’s < Yellow Scream > (2012), in which he paints a canvas with yellow paint while screaming to teach how to paint abstractions titled ‘yellow scream’.
The title of the exhibition, ‘How to become a rock’, is an excerpt from Kim’s artist book, The Art of Transforming (1997). It summarizes the artist’s attitude toward observing objects and keeping them in art. This exhibition will be a valuable opportunity to experience the work of one of the most important artists to understand Korean at of the 1990s.
*In addition to Kim’s solo exhibition, Boma Pak’s solo exhibition Ritual of Matter will be on view in the lobby from July 25 to December 24, and John Gerrad’s < Farm (Council Bluffs, Iowa) > (2015) will be on view in the Media Wall from July 18 to August 20.
