Kim Jipyeong (b. 1976) has presented works that explore contemporary themes through the techniques and styles of Oriental painting, or Korean traditional painting. Rather than viewing the past and present as opposing forces or focusing on modernizing tradition, the artist aims to discover the contemporary within tradition by considering what has been omitted from both realms.

From 2001 to 2012, she primarily presented paintings that reinterpreted traditional Korean folk art styles, such as Chaekgeori (still-life paintings of books and stationery), Munjado (paintings of Chinese characters), and Hwajodo (paintings of flowers and birds), as well as the decorative elements of Dancheong (traditional Korean decorative coloring on wooden buildings). Using acrylic paint, she modernized these styles to suit the times, gaining early recognition for her vibrant ‘Chaekgeori’ series.

Kim Jipyeong's early works reflect her exploration of the interaction between tradition and contemporaneity, as well as between folk elements and modern art. For instance, her 2008 work Michaesansu (迷彩山水圖) - Mushroom Mountain incorporates a distinctly contemporary Korean landscape into the traditional formats of Sansuhwa (Korean landscape painting) and folk art. 
 
The word “Michae” (迷彩) in the title translates to “camouflage,” a term commonly associated with military concealment or deception. From a distance, the painting appears to be a beautiful traditional landscape, but upon closer inspection, military markers hidden within the mountains emerge, prompting reflections on the meanings concealed within familiar sceneries.
 
By embedding camouflage patterns, symbolic of military deception, into the traditional landscape format, Kim not only evokes another layer of concealment and illusion but also mirrors the realities of the “here-and-now” while simultaneously creating a sense of fantasy.

Since 2013, the artist delving into the materials, theories, and philosophical concepts of Oriental painting while connecting them to the present. For example, in her 2015 solo exhibition 《Pyeongan-Do》 at Art Company GIG, Kim addressed themes of family history and the division of the Korean Peninsula through the format of old maps and the Geumnihwa (gold pigment painting) technique.
 
In this exhibition, Kim presented works centered on Pyeongan Province, her mother’s hometown. Due to the division of Korea, she was unable to witness Pyeongan Province directly, so she traveled and imagined its landscapes through various resources, including literature, paintings, and maps. For instance, she studied the topography by comparing historical maps she had collected with Google Earth and indirectly experienced the sentiments of Pyeongan Province through its written descriptions and anecdotes, reconstructing its essence from the past.

Using her collected materials and imagination, Kim Jipyeong reinterpreted Pyeongan Province—a place she could neither visit nor experience firsthand—through the techniques of Oriental painting. In Kwanseopalgyeong (關西八景) (2014), which beautifully depicts eight scenic spots of Pyeongan Province, Kim employed the Geumnihwa technique, a method that first emerged during the mid-Joseon period.
 
Geumnihwa involves painting landscapes with gold pigment on black silk or paper, traditionally used for royal court decorations or paintings reserved exclusively for the king, symbolizing authority and grandeur. By applying this technique, Kim transformed Pyeongan Province into a splendid and fantastical landscape. Through this process, she reframed the region not solely as a site of tragic history and conflict but as a mysterious and beautiful space.

Kim Jipyeong extensively researches folktales, myths, travelogues, and historical texts, focusing on marginalized narratives and excluded traditions hidden within them. Paintings from the Joseon dynasty, dominated by a Confucian worldview, were often created based on male-centered culture. Kim highlights the elements omitted or deemed taboo during that period—such as women, sexual desire, shamanic paintings, Buddhist art, and underground narratives—and incorporates these as key themes in her work. 
 
In her 2017 solo exhibition 《Jaenyeodeokgo (才女德高)》 at Hapjungjigu, Kim emphasized the language of femininity that had been taboo in traditional paintings, presenting works that liberate this forbidden language. The exhibition title, “Jaenyeodeokgo,” translates to “A talented woman possesses great virtue.” It is both a challenge to the Confucian value system that suggested women should lack talent to be virtuous and a provocative question about the nature of “feminine talent.”

The works showcased in the exhibition commonly featured symbols associated with femininity, such as yeonjigonji (traditional Korean red dots applied on the cheeks and forehead of women), leopard patterns used in wedding ceremonies as protective charms, jokduri (a traditional Korean bridal headpiece), as well as motifs from traditional iconography, including minhwa (folk paintings), portraits of beautiful women (miindo), and realistic landscape paintings (silgyeongsansu). Additionally, the pieces incorporated flowing liquids reminiscent of bodily substances like blood and tears, evoking a visceral sense of femininity. 
 
Among the works, the landscape painting blood and wine (2017), inspired by Eastern and Western folktales and myths about menstruation, metaphorically addressed traditional taboos surrounding women. To achieve this, Kim used cinnabar—a vivid red pigment traditionally used in amulets in Korea—to "profane" the depiction of women and landscapes. By doing so, the artist confronted and challenged the taboos embedded in tradition.

Kim Jipyeong’s spirit of challenge continued in her 2020 exhibition 《Friends from Afar》 at Boan1942. In this exhibition, she presented works that utilized janghwang (the decorative mounting used for scrolls or folding screens). The artist was particularly drawn to the fact that the names of various parts of the janghwang—such as chima (skirt), jeogori (jacket), and somae (sleeve)—are metaphorically associated with women’s clothing. 
 
Focusing on the corporeality embedded in janghwang, Kim removed the traditional paintings usually placed within folding screens or scrolls and filled the space with the janghwang itself, transforming each screen into a representation of diverse individuals. For instance, in her ten-panel folding screen work Neungpamibo (凌波微步) (2019), she depicted the writings of ten female literati from the Joseon dynasty. 
 
These women writers, despite their literary talents, were largely unrecognized and have been remembered only through written records. Kim gave these forgotten figures a new sense of “embodiment” by symbolizing them through various pieces of silk that she matched to the characteristics of each writer. In doing so, she brought physicality and presence to lives that had previously existed only as text.

In her 2023 solo exhibition 《Painting Lost》 at INDIPRESS, Kim presented another series of scroll works titled ‘Diva’ (2023), which symbolize individuals erased or marginalized in history. The “divas” Kim focused on include European gothic female vocalists who challenged the male-dominated conventions of rock music, Korean shaman women who have been dismissed as “vulgar,” and grandmothers in Korea who endured sacrifices within the constraints of a patriarchal society. 

In the same exhibition, Painting Lost (2021) was another significant piece that focused on the theme of absence. This work revolved around the landscape paintings of Shin Saimdang, which, while documented in historical texts and records, no longer exist today. The work literally embodies the concept of a “lost painting.” It features a glass display case, resembling those found in museums, with silkscreened text on the exterior describing the missing artwork.

The empty case and the text praising the lost landscape painting symbolize the fragile existence of Shin Saimdang’s work, now preserved only in written form. Next to it, Kim placed a colorful, but folded folding screen that could not be seen.
 
Art critic Moonjung Lee commented on the piece, noting, “The empty glass box, the text about the painting, and the folded, unseen screen reflect the artist’s ongoing engagement with themes such as the fragmentation and loss of tradition, the politics of viewing, museum practices of exhibition and preservation, and the history of East Asian art.”

Along with this, Kim Jipyeong also focused on Buddhist paintings and military portraits, which have often been regarded as peripheral and neglected in traditional culture. She took note of the fact that religious paintings always include elaborate decorations surrounding the divine figures. Drawing from this observation, she removed the divine figures from her works and left only the decorative elements behind.
 
The triptych Gwangbae (光背) (2020) features only the traditional decorative icon of the gwangbae (halo), which is typically drawn around divine beings. A gwangbae is a symbolic adornment that represents the greatness and transcendence of the divine. By removing the divine figure and leaving only the gwangbae, Kim conveys an era in which divinity and sacredness have disappeared.
 
In her paintings, the absence of the divine carries neither a negative nor a positive meaning. It suggests that the divine might have vanished from the scene or could still be waiting to arrive, leaving an empty space behind.

In this way, Kim Jipyeong does not lean exclusively toward either simply borrowing traditional symbols or updating the inherent meanings of tradition in a modern context. She confronts the fixed concepts and rules embedded in Eastern traditional art, such as traditional painting, landscape painting, and folk painting, and reinterprets them in an innovative way. By combining elements that have been excluded from the histories of art, society, and culture, she generates new meanings.

"I want to break free from the preconception that tradition must be modernized. The goal is not to modernize tradition because it is pre-modern, but to discover the contemporary within tradition." (Kim Jipyeong, Vogue Interview, 2024.02.03)

Kim Jipyeong graduated from the Department of Oriental Painting at Ewha Women’s University and received a master’s degree from the Department of Art Education at its graduate school. Since her first solo exhibition 《Vivid Drop》 at Gyeongin Museum of Fine Art in 2001, Kim has held numerous solo exhibitions, including 《Brilliant Texture》 (Gana Contemporary, Seoul, 2013), 《Pyeongan-Do》 (Art Company GIG, Seoul, 2015), 《Jaenyeodeokgo (才女德高)》 (Hapjungjigu, Seoul, 2017), 《Kiam Yeoljeon (奇巖列傳)》 (Gallery Meme, Seoul, 2019), and 《Friends from Afar》 (Boan1942, Seoul, 2020).
 
Kim also participated in numerous group exhibitions, including those at the ThisWeekendRoom (Seoul, Korea), Seoul Museum of Art (Seoul, Korea), Art Space Pool (Seoul, Korea), Fengxian Museum (Shanghai, China), Lee Ungno Museum (Daejeon, Korea), and INDIPRESS (Seoul, Korea). Kim was one of the twenty artists selected for the 21st SongEun Art Award (SongEun Art and Cultural Foundation, Korea) and participated in the 2024 Busan Biennale.
 
Her work is included in the collections of the Seoul Museum of Art (Seoul, Korea), MMCA ArtBank (Gwacheon, Korea), Gana Art Gallery (Gwacheon, Korea), Hana Bank (Seoul, Korea), Amorepacific Museum (Seoul, Korea), and Hankook Chinaware (Chungju, Korea).

References

• 김지평, Kim Jipyeong (Artist Website)
• 보그, 가장 동시대적인 한국화에 대하여
• 국립현대미술관 미술은행, 김지평 - 미채산수도(迷彩山水圖)-Mushroom Mountain (MMCA Art Bank, Kim Jipyeong - Michaesansu (迷彩山水圖) - Mushroom Mountain)
• 아트 컴퍼니 긱, 평안도 (Art Company GIG, Pyeongan-Do)
• 합정지구, 재녀덕고 (Hapjungjigu, Jaenyeodeokgo)
• 유아트스페이스, 김지평 – blood and wine (UARTSPACE, Kim Jipyeong - blood and wine)
• 다아트, [이문정 평론가의 더 갤러리 (106) 김지평 개인전 ‘없는 그림’] ‘없는 그림’으로 흘러간 가치-기호에 말걸어 보기, 2023.12.22
• 부산비엔날레 2024, 김지평 (2024 Busan Biennale, Kim Jipyeong)