Kim Yusob’s painting derives from a work process that reminds of geological matters – of phenomena we often refer to as ‘natural spectacle’. He combines lumpy, flowing, lively layers of paint on his canvases, which he – similar to the way lava rocks form layers – pours onto the canvas. He then reworks these layers and in between subject them to rigorous drying techniques. His pictorial invention passes through time-consuming processes, and the abstractions we perceive in Kim Yusob’s works are subject of constant alterations during their course of gestation. In his method, he explores human primeval experiences in form of the four elements – by mentioning the essences of water, fire, air and earth without actually depicting them. He leads us to these primeval images or archetypes of the basic modules, in a sense to address a universal form of human imagination.
The constant repetition of buildup and destruction leads to a metaphor of a battle with the content. An excrescence of the artist’s mental movements between moderation and excess, emergence and vanishing, euphoria and perplexity become evident as if a tough stream of lava had flown over the canvas and then congealed thereon, without ever compromising the luminosity known of melting rocks. Kim’s blanketing of various layers and viscosities densifies into a concert of visual explosions and to a haptic colored relief as well that take on their own role within the image. He is concerned with the essence of painting and his quest for a structure that is imminent to the world, and with his personal order in chaos. In addition to that, Kim Yusob subjects his canvases to an almighty rule that we meet in all of his works: he restricts himself to the exclusive shape of the square in the canvas proportions.
Thus, the artist expresses - exactly by refraining from representationalism - statements on the essence of things that would not be communicable in a figurative way.
In his Korean homeland, Kim Yusob teaches at the renowned Chosun University in Gwangju. He obtained a doctoral degree there in 2013 on his thorough examinations of ‘Black Painting’. Born in Gwangju in 1959 he took on his first studies of art and completed them in the year 2000 as Master Student of Wolfgang Petrick at the UdK Berlin. Since then he commutes between both cities and both worlds.