June Kim (born in 1987 in South Korea) is an artist who creates phygital installations made of red thread, from her data on social networks. The artist studied photography at the University of Bukyong (Busan), then left for the United States of America to join the Art College of Design in Pasadena, California, where she obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Artsarts. In 2010, she began her professional career by joining the team of a prestigious production studio in Los Angeles. June Kim is evolving with technology and developing a positive vision of digital and its growing impact on our contemporary societies.

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In parallel, June Kim develops her career as a visual artist. Her artistic work articulates a contemporary reflection around an ancient Asian belief: “An invisible red thread connects at birth those who are destined to meet.” The two people connected by the red wire are lovers destined to be together, regardless of the place, time or circumstances. In Europe, we could compare this concept to the idea of “soul mate”, although this thread can also connect a person to his/her mother, father, brother, friend, So they can discover and love each other. If the red thread and the Asian belief behind this motif are recurring in the work of many artists like Chiharu Shiota or David Černý, June KIM’s works bring a new dimension to these concepts. For the artist, the theory of the red thread - an Asian poetic equivalent of the concept of Destiny - is no longer a mere belief, but is anchored in a tangible reality: Humans invented Fate, these invisible red threads today exist indeed, they are our algorithms.

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Following a long period of overwork, June Kim feels the need to reconnect with her cultural roots and the natural environment around her. The artist makes the decision to leave the big production studios in Los Angeles to set up her own agency, on a human scale, thus benefiting from a more serene work rhythm. The question of her connection to nature gradually became a prominent subject in her personal and then artistic reflection over the last four years. The development of recent tools using artificial intelligence processes allows her to incorporate a new dimension in her work, pushing her to explore the possibilities of intangible art.

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Her still images and digital animations explore ways of reconnecting humans with Nature, through the creation of imaginary landscapes rooted in reality, traversed on either side by abstract red threads. This new facet of her work explores the question of human filiation to Nature, where the red thread becomes an umbilical cord to which every human being is attached.

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If June Kim feel in the new artificial intelligence processes a new tool for artists, she warned on the need to succeed in transmitting to these software its own philosophy of creation, its artistic touch, which she groups under the concept of “prompt philosophy”.

 

Her work has been awarded multiple times (SeeMe Global Competition, Scope Art Show Art Basel 2012, California Open Exhibition 2013, finalist Apple Vision Pro...). June Kim took part to numerous art exhibitions in California (Main Museum, San Luis Obispo Museum of Art, BG Gallery, H Gallery, Irvine Fine Arts Center…). From 2019, her work is exhibited in many international exhibitions or fairs (Gallery  Space776 in New York, Gallery 508 in Londres, Stratosphere NFT in Pékin, Maison des Associés in Toulouse, galerie Iham in Paris, Gallery XR in Séoul, Los Angeles Art Show 2019, 2021 and 2022, Bitcoin 2021, NFT NYC 2021, BWB 2022, Art Basel Miami 2022, NFT Paris 2024...).

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Text written by Annelise Stern - copyright Art Girls