Dew Kim turns the body into a canvas for examining the intersections of sexuality, religion, and identity. Working primarily with video, sculpture, installation, and performance, he investigates themes of queerness, BDSM, and the deconstruction of traditional notions of desire and power. By embracing processes that combine pain and pleasure, Kim examines how practices like chastity training transform sexual expression, challenging phallocentric frameworks and creating new languages of embodiment. His work is deeply informed by his upbringing as the child of a Presbyterian pastor in a conservative Seoul neighborhood, where early exposure to religious texts and teachings shaped his understanding of morality, desire, and social structures. Kim draws on these personal experiences to question societal norms and explore the tensions between cultural expectations and individual identity. Through material experimentation, often combining sculptural forms with performative gestures, Kim’s practice investigates vulnerability, control, and transformation. His work reflects on how power, sexuality, and belief intersect, offering a nuanced perspective on desire, selfhood, and the body as both a personal and cultural site of knowledge. ...
Various Small Fires (Los Angeles /Dallas /Seoul) began as a series of conversations with artists and curators in Esther Kim Varet’s Venice Beach kitchen while working on her doctoral dissertation. VSF debuted in Hollywood as an official gallery in 2015 with a roster of artists and its current Johnston MarkLee Architects-designed building. The Hollywood gallery contains three exhibition spaces, a unique sound corridor, and an outdoor gallery. VSF’s exhibition program explores several curatorial lines: climate, equality, and an international conversation. The gallery is known for offering artists debut shows, creating intergenerational conversations among the artists on its roster, and solidifying artists’ legacies within art history. In 2019, VSF opened a second location in the Hannam neighbourhood of Seoul, South Korea, followed recently this Spring by VSFs third outpost in Dallas, Texas. While Varet has very personal connections to both locations, they are also superlative art communities. These expansions emphasise the gallery’s commitment to innovation and global dialogue in the twenty-first century. In 2021, VSF became a member of the Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA). ...
