Mari Kim

Life and career

Kim was born in Busan as Kim Mari (김마리). Due to her father's job, the family moved often and she became close to her younger brother, Nara, as friendships were hard to maintain with the relocating. She consoled herself with crayons, drawing "everything and anything" and found her passion for art. She said, "I always liked fantasizing as a child."

During high school she read a lot of teen novels and comics. As her interest in art developed, she was unsure of making it a career. Her parents had artistic interests in photography, sketching and embroidery but hoped that she would pursue medicine or law. They compromised when she found a course of studies in visual arts through computers. After high school, she moved to Melbourne, Australia, and attended RMIT University where she received a master's degree in multimedia design and creative media in 2006, after which she specialized in digital art.

She developed a love of Australia and stayed there for about a decade, along with her brother. She eventually returned to Seoul seeking an urban art scene in a familiar place.

In addition to her art work, she has been an adjunct professor for Catholic University of Korea since 2007.

Animation

At RMIT she concentrated in animation, learning storytelling techniques, drawing, image and video creation and editing, which she incorporates in her private exhibits to enhance her flat surface works with images, videos and installation works. Movie directors that have inspired her are David Lynch, Shinya Tsukamoto, Sion Sono, Coen brothers, Lars von Trier, and The Wachowskis.

Eyedolls

In 2007, she started working with characters called "eyedolls", and during the 2015 "SETI" exhibit in Seoul, Kwon Mee-yoo of The Korea Times described them as "girls with large eyes and immature physiques [staring] from the canvas", with "funky colors and cute costumes". Her work is anime inspired, and of the large eyes, she has said "No matter if you're from the East or West, the eyes are the windows to your mind. I use the eyes as a wormhole; a gate to an imaginary and reality world."

Many of her works with the eyedolls include fairy tale and other popular characters and famous female icons, including Iron Lady, Catwoman, Wonder Woman, Audrey Hepburn, and Gloria Steinem. The Untitled Magazine said the characters' eyes "encompass a world of their own" and reveal "intricate patterns", somewhat like "looking through the lens of a kaleidoscope". Some of the depictions show women with cuts or stitched lips; Kim has cited American horror films as an influence on her work.

2NE1 collaboration

In 2011, she was invited to collaborate with girl group 2NE1 on the music video for their song "Hate You" and album 2NE1, after the CEO of YG Entertainment purchased some of her paintings at an art exhibit. She worked on the planning process of the album and provided the artwork for the album cover. She produced and directed the animated music video for "Hate You", which depicts the members of the group carrying guns and saving the world from a monster, with her signature huge eyes and thick makeup.

Femininity

She has participated in several exhibitions that explore femininity, particularly in contemporary Korea. In New York City, in 2013, Amalgamated Gallery curator Gary Krimershmoys said of the "K- Surrogates" show from September through November, "The concept for the show came from a desire to show in America a unique Korean cultural and artistic vision, that does not conform to an international orthodoxy," and added, "These three female artists embodied a connection with this particular moment in Korea, where technology, an international K-pop explosion and a neo-feminist attitude are all intermixed to produce exceptional art."

In October 2015, she joined other women artists for The Untitled Magazine's exhibit "The "F” Word: Feminism in Art", an exhibit of twenty women artists in Tribeca, described as "each artist individually [addressing] concepts revolving around feminism with works that either challenge gender stereotypes or embrace female empowerment, with literal or metaphorical visual language."

At the 2016 Los Angeles Art Show her solo exhibit "Days of Future Past" showed works that portrayed a discussion of changing gender roles in Korea, including the traditional effects of Confucianism and the new generation that is "free to pursue their dreams regardless of gender".

Awards and recognition

In October 2013, she was awarded the "ChungKang Culture Award", sponsored by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism for recognition of creative work as an artist that contributed to the culture industry. Her interpretations of the stereotypical image of women in the media were noted for recreating distinctive images of women, which had also appeared in stationery or shoes that were popular among the younger generation.

Her idol eyedoll artwork was featured in the 2014 film Tazza: The Hidden Card.

Solo exhibitions

Selected group exhibitions

Other projects

Collections

Publications

Awards