Chromaticism — Bumin Kim

In Chromaticism, Bumin Kim continues to explore materiality, color, form, and the process of making through her Landscape series. Kim has long been drawn to light and shadow, shifting color, softness and strength found in nature and classical music, and the harmony between them. In her work, these qualities coexist as contrasting states: calm yet activated, restrained yet expansive, clear yet complex. By observing the relationships between these qualities, Kim reconstructs their tensions through material, color, line, and structure, allowing new states to emerge within the work.

The title comes from the musical term, chromaticism. As Kim watched colors move in small intervals and form relationships with one another, carrying a sense of tension, pitch, and direction, Chromaticism felt like a fitting metaphor for the work. It offered another way of seeing the relationships and movements already present within the work.

This way of thinking expanded the possibilities of the Landscape series, allowing ideas and inspirations to develop in new directions and creating variations within the work. Through this perspective, Kim experiments in several works with arrangements of straight lines that create an illusion of organic movement, as well as with the forms and spaces created through their relationships. With color, she explores movement between colors through narrow intervals, as well as the tension and harmony created when different flows of color meet.

These metaphorical ideas allow Kim to view the process and materiality of the work from a more expansive perspective. She is interested in holding both light and darkness within the work, looking closely at the light encountered each day as it spreads through space, pauses, and seeps into shadow. Considering this expanding and spreading quality of light, tightly pulled thread begins to feel like a natural material. Through this expanded view of process and materiality, new inspirations emerge and carry the work forward.

Through this process, the Landscape series has gradually shifted with the passage of time. The series has developed through an ongoing exploration of the relationships between different elements, observing them closely as many voices and feelings resonate together, orchestrated toward an open-ended state that emerges through the process. This exhibition is an opportunity to look more closely at what Kim is seeing through the Landscape series and how these relationships are forming into new landscapes.

Bumin Kim (b. 1982)

Bumin Kim explores the formal potential of line, expanding the boundaries between two-dimensional surface and three-dimensional space. The transformative power of materiality lies at the core of Kim's practice. Repurposing thread and string as painterly media, she emphasizes the energy, delicacy, and grace of drawing and painting while challenging conventional notions of the painted surface. Traditionally associated with weaving and stitching, thread becomes both material and metaphor—a means of connection, repair, and transformation. Through the meticulous manipulation of fiber, Kim translates the gesture of the brushstroke into sculptural form, allowing the picture plane to extend beyond the traditional boundaries of painting.

Both the singular line and the accumulation of lines en masse function as sensitive structural elements through which Kim constructs intricate compositions that vibrate just above the surface. Her work engages the dynamic forces of nature, the interplay of light and shadow, and the emotions and memories these evoke. Echoing the expansive horizons and atmospheric shifts of North Texas, subtle hues and solid forms dissolve into luminous fields of flowing color. Existing between drawing, painting, and sculpture, Kim's works invite a heightened awareness of material, gesture, and space, revealing the perceptual possibilities that emerge through repetition, accumulation, and transformation.

Originally from South Korea, Kim received her MFA in Drawing and Painting from the University of North Texas in 2015. Her work has been exhibited at numerous institutions and international art fairs, including Art Miami, Pulse Art Fair, Dallas Art Fair, Art Aspen, San Francisco Art Fair, Art Market Hamptons, and Texas Contemporary Art Fair. In 2025, her work was acquired by the Art Museum of Texas in Sugar Land.