Sang Woo Kim (b. 1994, Seoul) is a Korean artist whose practice spans painting and photography-based processes to explore racialised identity, spectatorship, and the politics of representation. His self-portraits—at times textured with broken brushstrokes, sometimes smoothed, at other points gestural, though always tightly cropped—reflect, in the artist’s words, a desire to “reclaim agency” over his racialisation as a Korean man in British society. Eyes recur as a central motif: his epicanthic folds, once mocked in the West and now fetishised, are reasserted as sites of power and complexity, opening up questions around racism, desire, and the struggle to exist beyond both.
Kim’s pigment transfer works further this enquiry through the language of photography. Digitally altered images sourced from his own phone and online media are transferred onto canvas, forming dense visual compositions that reflect the overstimulation of contemporary image culture. Referencing Robert Rauschenberg’s “painterly prints,” these works blur the line between photography and painting while foregrounding the slippage between image and representation. Together, Kim’s paintings and transfers form a layered practice that grapples with visibility, perception, and the unstable construction of identity in the digital and imperial metropole. ...
Herald St was established in 2005 by Ash L’ange and Nicky Verber. With two spaces across London, Herald St represents twenty-five international artists and participates in multiple art fairs including Art Basel, Frieze London, and Frieze Los Angeles amongst others. Works by Herald St artists are held in many museum collections and are regularly included in exhibitions within public institutions.
