Du Rye Kim

Korean painter Kim Du Rye was born into a family of artists, making her own path into art a natural and logical development. She studied painting at the renowned Chosun University in Gwangju, a cultural and economic center in southwestern South Korea, and graduated in 1979. Since then, she has been working as a successful freelance artist who has held numerous exhibitions in Korea and abroad.

An extended residency in New York in 2000 contributed to the influences of the American Abstract Expressionists in her work. Several exhibitions in the USA followed, the most significant of which being an exclusive invitation to exhibit in Hawaii on the occasion of the 110th anniversary of Korean immigration to the USA.

Her time in the United States was pivotal in the evolution of her oeuvre and ultimately resulted in a constant process of abstraction in her work, which eventually culminated in abstract color field painting. Kim Du Rye‘s art is classical in the best sense of the word, characterized by a sovereign use of the abstract composition. Echoes of figuration are still present in her earlier works: individual figures in calm poses almost seem to dissolve into colorful, abstract spaces and melt into their surroundings. In later works, the artist employs color field painting – a style deeply rooted in the American tradition – in a wide spectrum of variations ranging from strict geometric structures to painterly dissolution. Her at times large-format canvases are free of spatial or associative intentions, for which reason they do not bear any titles that would constrain the viewer‘s imagination.

Kim Du Rye‘s real creative realm, however, clearly lies in colour: it lends the paintings warmth, depth and emotion, tension or tranquility, shimmering liveliness or contemplative calm. Strong in expression, oriented towards primary shades and generously distributed over the entire surface of the canvas, the colours in Kim Du Rye‘s paintings are consistently present and thus become a visual experience for the viewer.

Kim Du Rye lives and works in Seoul, South Korea.