A b o u t
Hera Kim was born in 1986 in Seoul, Korea. In 2004, she initially studied bio and brain engineering at KAIST. She moved to the U.S. in 2010 and began to study fine art at Maryland Institute College of Art in 2014. Her art has been showcased at international fairs such as Context Art Miami and Hamptons Fine Art Fair.
A r t i s t S t a t e m e n t
Life is pain. It is an endless process of daily failures, small and large, that result in guilt. I always think about my faults. I can't forget them or stop making them. They accumulate inside of me with pain. I can't get out of the guiltiness while I am alive, because I do not have a God who can forgive me. God is dead inside of me. Perhaps I murdered God, so I must be in pain.
So, I paint. As I paint, the pain flows out from my body through each brush stroke, and it stays in canvas as every single mark. I repeat this simple ritual everyday. This time is the most calm and peaceful, like a moment of prayer. I fossilize my guilt and bury it under oblivion. For a little while, as I paint, I can forget my uncomfortable emotions and be free from my guiltiness.
When I paint, I do not reveal my pain as it is. That is too cruel and monstrous. I wrap the pain and the memory inside a paradise. I am not able to identify whether the process is a positive healing or a negative distortion. It might be proven by time, at the end of my life. Currently, I paint. I just paint.
Oct. 2015