Eunha Kim Korean American

I am a Korean-born artist based in New York City. My paintings unfold within the liminal space between myth and everyday life, shaped by the emotional complexity of living between cultures. My practice is rooted in close observation of daily experience, the narrative imagination of Korean folk painting known as Minhwa, and a sustained engagement with the history of Western painting, particularly religious works by the Old Masters. I am struck by the intensity of devotion embedded in the scale, repetition, and compositional order of these sacred works. As an agnostic, I encounter this faith as both distant and overwhelming, yet uncannily familiar. It mirrors my own history of migration, the persistent, paradoxical longing for a sense of belonging that remains elusive and perpetually out of reach.

The mask-like faces that populate my work derive from traditional Korean tal, once used by

commoners to satirize the ruling class. Initially drawn to them as symbols of defiance, I have

gradually transformed these forms into figures marked by longing, vulnerability, and disorientation. They hover between the real and the fantastical, occupying unstable and dreamlike environments that reflect the profound complexity of carrying multiple worlds within oneself. Appearing as totemic presences, these figures often hold orbs that shift ambiguities between masks and faces. The mythical Haetae, a guardian figure from Korean folklore, recurs throughout my work as both witness and guide.

By combining the flattened perspectives, symbolism, and wit of Minhwa with compositional

structures informed by historical Western painting, I construct spaces charged with pervading tension and poetic ambiguity. This interplay between personal narrative and historical reference allows me to explore questions of representation, memory, and the perpetual longing for home. While rooted in personal experience, my work resonates with broader conversations around migration, diaspora, and the persistent human search for connection and belonging.