Artist

As a landscape painter, I am captivated by the textures of the natural world—the intricate branching of a forest canopy or the shifting ripples of a lake. However, I do not see nature through the lens of Cézanne’s Euclidean geometry; instead, I see it as a sequence of causal events. To me, texture is the physical manifestation of causality, the mechanism through which we experience the illusion of time. Capturing this illusion allows me to feel profoundly connected to the source of all being.

My journey began with a question: why do humans respond so positively to specific visual arrangements? We prize symmetry because it suggests the functional flawlessness vital for survival. We are also drawn to 'poetic' arrangements—the visual tension and resolution found in both nature and the 'push and pull' dynamics of Hans Hofmann and the Cubists. I believe this aesthetic pleasure is hardwired into our sensory dynamics and brain economy.

Yet, most of nature is neither perfectly symmetrical nor intentionally poetic; it is chaotic. Tree branches, clouds, and weathered rocks are trails of causality left in space. I define life as an assembly that survives this very causality, and as such, we are destined to find meaning in its remnants. My art is a study of the human response to these trails.

My process mirrors that of a figure painter studying anatomy. I begin by scientifically deconstructing the sequence of events that formed my subject. Because every 'next' event in nature is born from the 'current' one, the result is an ordered randomness—the fundamental texture of our world. I often write computer programs to simulate these principles of 'unfolding'. For me, the final act of painting is more than an aesthetic choice; it is the archival conclusion of a scientific and spiritual study.

My full bio is available at https://www.linkedin.com/in/pyungchul-kim/.