Jung Hyang Kim consistently combines abstract motifs and traces of plant-based imagery in diptych paintings and large drawings such as the work in this exhibition, Mystical Journey. Here she creates a layered, atmospheric, open-ended painting that encourages the viewer to draw connections. Some of the plants included in her work, such as lotus pods or chrysanthemums, are associated with Buddhist or Korean customs, while others come from direct experience of working in her garden upstate. Since coming here for graduate school, she has lived in New York, where she assimilates Eastern and Western artistic influences in her work.

Jung Hyang Kim received her BFA from Seoul National University, and her MFA at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn NY in 1980. She has exhibited widely including solo shows at Yemak Gallery, Seoul, Korea; Vernacular Press Gallery, New York, NY; Ben Shahn Gallery, William Patterson University, Wayne, NJ; and Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center, Buffalo, NY; as well as in group exhibitions such as Road So Far, Metaphor Contemporary Art, Brooklyn, NY; Femininity in Contemporary Asian Art, Lehman College Art Gallery, Bronx, NY; Dorsky Curatorial Programs, Long Island City, NY; and the Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY. This year she received a commission from the MTA Arts for Transit for the Crescent Street Subway Station on the J line.
http://www.junghyangkim.com