Pyungchul Kim

I am a landscape painter, particularly interested in the texture created by nature. Tree branches, ripples in lakes are some examples. I see nature not as a configuration of Euclidean geometric forms as suggested by Paul Cézanne, but a sequence of causal events. The texture in nature is a manifestation of the causality principle through which we experience the illusion of time. I feel profoundly connected to the source of beings when I am able to capture this illusion.

     My art journey started with a question on why we humans have a positive attitude toward certain visual arrangements of nature. We like symmetry in nature because it suggests functional flawlessness that fits survival. We are also pleased by a poetic arrangement of elements in nature where some elements create visual tension and other elements neutralize the tension. I believe that this type of pleasure is inherent in our sensory dynamics and brain economy. This poetic quality of tension dynamics is not limited to nature. Cubists and later artists based on “push and pull” by Hans Hofmann exercised it for decades beyond landscape paintings. However, the majority of natural arrangements are chaotic that cannot be characterized as either symmetry or poetic arrangement. Tree branches in the forest, waves and ripples on a lake, clouds in the sky and weathered rocks on a mountain are just some examples. I think they are reminiscent of time in space. It is the trail of the causality principle. Life, which I define as an assembly that survives the very causality, is destined to appreciate this reminiscence. Hence, my art is a study of human’s response to the trail of causality in space.

     My painting process typically starts with scientific understanding of the sequence of events presented in the subject matter. It is as if figure painters study human anatomy. The next event in nature is always based on the current event, hence causality. This always yields an ordered random arrangement of visual elements, i.e., texture in nature. I sometimes write computer programs to simulate the principles and create experimental digital images. For instance, I wrote programs that generate the visual shape of tree growth and pruning over time, and simulate rain drops on water surface. I also use my own program, called ORStudio, for color experimentation. Painting comes as the final step. It is the archival step of my study.

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