Christine Sun Kim (b. 1980) is a Korean American artist whose practice explores sound, language, and the structures of communication through drawing, painting, video, installation, and performance.
 
Born in California, Kim is a Deaf artist who has developed a distinctive visual language using American Sign Language (ASL), musical notation, written language, and graphic symbols. She examines sound not only as an auditory phenomenon but also in terms of the meanings attributed to it through social relationships, power structures, and cultural conventions, translating these concerns into the conceptual and formal dimensions of her work.
 
In Kim's work, musical notes, staff lines, arrows, words, and graphic marks become visual elements through which she expresses emotions, memories, interpersonal relationships, and social experiences. By transforming and combining these elements, she reconfigures the relationship between language and image. In recent years, she has extended the visual language developed through her drawings into shaped-canvas paintings, large-scale moving-image works, and architectural installations, further expanding her artistic practice.
 
Kim's work gained significant international recognition through major solo exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo in 2025. In 2026, her work has been presented in Seoul and Luxembourg through exhibitions highlighting different aspects of her practice.
 
Her solo exhibition 《Moon Mind》 (August 26–October 18) at Hyundai Hwarang explored family, memory, and identity through painting and drawing.
 
Meanwhile, 《Have Many Dumb Fights Against Rock》 (July 31–November 29), currently on view at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA) in Seoul, translates the movements of American Sign Language into large-scale moving images and spatial drawings. At Mudam Luxembourg, 《FOR EVER》 (September 25, 2026–January 10, 2027) examines the history of Deaf culture and the continuity of language through monumental sculptural forms.
 
Together, these three exhibitions offer an opportunity to trace how Kim has developed a distinctive visual language from her experiences of sound and communication, while considering the aesthetic and social significance of her work within contemporary art.
 
 
 
Hyundai Hwarang: 《Moon Mind》 — Exploring Memory and Relationships Through Painting

Held at Hyundai Hwarang from August 26 to October 18, 2026, 《Moon Mind》 offered a focused presentation of Christine Sun Kim's exploration of painting. Featuring approximately 40 works, including shaped-canvas paintings and drawings, the exhibition examined family, memory, cultural identity, and interpersonal relationships.
 
A defining feature of the exhibition was Kim's expansion of her long-established vocabulary of lines, text, and symbols into the physical shapes of the canvases themselves. Moving beyond the conventional rectangular format, her shaped canvases extend her exploration of language and gesture into the physical structure of painting, introducing a new spatial dimension to the visual language she has developed through drawing.

Kim's cultural background as a Korean American and her family history also bring a more personal dimension to a practice that has long examined the social structures surrounding sound and language, extending her inquiry into questions of individual history and identity.
 
 
Exhibition Information
 
Title: Christine Sun Kim 《Moon Mind》
Dates: August 26–October 18, 2026 (Exhibition closed)
Venue: Hyundai Hwarang, Gallery Hyundai
Address: 8 Samcheong-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea
Website: www.galleryhyundai.com
 
 
 

MMCA Seoul: Have Many Dumb Fights Against Rock — Extending the Movements of Sign Language into Space

The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA), Seoul, is presenting Christine Sun Kim's large-scale installation 《Have Many Dumb Fights Against Rock》 from July 31 to November 29, 2026.

Created as part of the MMCA x LG OLED Series, the work combines a large curved OLED display installed in Seoul Box, the museum's central architectural space, with drawings extending across the surrounding walls and floor.
 
Kim translates the movements of American Sign Language into moving images and graphic forms, visualizing how language takes shape through the body and its relationship to space. The handshapes, movements, directions, and timing through which ASL conveys meaning are translated into moving images and drawings that extend across the surrounding space.
 
As visitors encounter the moving images alongside the drawings throughout the space, language emerges as a process shaped by time, movement, and bodily relationships rather than a fixed system of meaning. Through this spatial composition, Kim explores the conflicts and misunderstandings that arise in communication, as well as the relationships between different sensory experiences.
 
 
Exhibition Information

Title: MMCA x LG OLED Series 2026: Christine Sun Kim 《Have Many Dumb Fights Against Rock》
Dates: July 31–November 29, 2026
Venue: National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA), Seoul — Seoul Box
Address: 30 Samcheong-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea
Website: www.mmca.go.kr
 
 
 
Mudam Luxembourg: 《FOR EVER》 — Commemorating the History of Deaf Culture Through Sign Language

Mudam Luxembourg – Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean is presenting Christine Sun Kim's solo exhibition 《FOR EVER》 from September 25, 2026, to January 10, 2027.
 
Exploring the history of Deaf culture and the continuity of Deaf communities, the exhibition features a site-specific installation that transforms American Sign Language into sculptural canvases and a soundscape.
 
Responding to the chapel-like architecture of Mudam's Henry J. and Erna D. Leir Pavilion, Kim has created an installation extending across its four walls. The movement of the ASL sign for "forever" is translated into sculptural canvases that occupy the architectural space. By giving enduring material form to a bodily gesture that unfolds momentarily in time, the work explores the relationship between the transience of language and the continuity of culture.
 
Here, the word "forever" symbolizes the endurance of Deaf culture despite the historical restrictions on sign language and the discrimination experienced by Deaf communities. A soundscape developed in collaboration with musician Matt Karmil further explores the relationship between visual form and sound.
 
At the artist's request, the exhibition is presented entirely on the pavilion's ground level, avoiding the lower floor, which lacks step-free access. This decision demonstrates how Kim's concerns with language, communication, and accessibility extend beyond the subject matter of her work to the practical conditions of its presentation.

Mudam is a major contemporary art museum in Luxembourg, presenting international artists through exhibitions and commissioned projects. By engaging directly with the museum's distinctive architecture, 《FOR EVER》 brings Kim's visual language into a large-scale sculptural installation.
 
  
Exhibition Information
 
Title: Christine Sun Kim 《FOR EVER》
Dates: September 25, 2026–January 10, 2027
Venue: Mudam Luxembourg – Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean
Address: 3 Park Dräi Eechelen, L-1499 Luxembourg
Website: www.mudam.com
 
 
 
Christine Sun Kim
 
Christine Sun Kim (b. 1980) has developed a distinctive visual language from her experiences of sound, language, and communication as a Deaf artist. Drawing on the bodily movements of sign language, musical notation, written language, and graphic symbols, she explores how human perception and language operate, extending these elements into painting, video, and installation.
 
Her practice builds on the legacy of Conceptual art, in which language and signs became central elements of artistic expression, while developing a distinctive approach grounded in Deaf experience and cultural identity. By visualizing the social conventions and power relations surrounding sound and language, Kim invites viewers to reconsider established assumptions about communication and perception.
 
Kim's artistic achievement lies in transforming her sensory and cultural experiences into a distinctive visual language, expanding the ways contemporary art explores human perception, language, and communication.