Soonam Kim
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From December 2 to 7, 2025, Space 776 will present a special exhibition spotlighting the work of Kim Sunam at the SCOPE Miami Art Fair in Miami Beach.
This presentation centers on the artist’s reinterpretation of “Khan,” a traditional spatial unit, transforming it into a contemporary visual language rooted in sensations and reflections drawn from everyday life.
Kim Sunam began working in earnest after discovering the beauty of art through various occupations and life experiences. While exploring multiple modes of expression, she received a Special Selection Award at the Korea National Art Exhibition for a work that built form through layered matière—an achievement that helped solidify the direction of her practice. The “Khan” structures within her paintings assign each object its own space, functioning as frameworks in which forms exist independently while simultaneously engaging in subtle relational dynamics.
Although each compartment appears isolated, the spaces maintain their boundaries while forming delicate correspondences with one another. This recalls how objects in the universe occupy distinct territories yet remain interconnected. Kim’s pictorial world embodies both individuality and interdependence, metaphorically expressing the disconnection and longing for connection experienced in contemporary life.
As she builds layers of paint, the artist recalls memories from the past; as she mixes pigments, the language of the present emerges—almost as though she is inventing a new lexicon. She often references the film Arrival, particularly the scenes where humans and extraterrestrials strive to communicate across unfamiliar languages.
Kim places paint to converse with her past self, blends pigments to speak to her present self, and completes the work as an act of communication with her future self—and with you, the viewer who will encounter the finished piece.
This SCOPE Miami presentation expands Kim Sunam’s formal inquiry through the themes of memory, time, and the spatiality of existence. Originating from a traditional concept, the “Khan” becomes a vessel for layers of personal experience, emotion, and recollection. Individual narratives unfold as an organic pattern across the surface, while neutral and restrained tones lend each compartment a quiet yet distinct presence. These elements collectively evoke the tension between isolation, fragmentation, and the human desire for connection.
Works
Sunjoo Chung
Works
From December 2 to 7, 2025, Space 776 will present a focused exhibition of works by Sunjoo Chung at the SCOPE Miami Art Fair in Miami Beach. This presentation highlights the artist’s recent body of work, which reinterprets mother-of-pearl, a traditional Korean material, through a contemporary lens—inviting viewers to reconsider the relationship between everyday life and materiality.
Born in Seoul in 1969, Sunjoo Chung employs mother-of-pearl, a core element of Korean decorative arts, to reimagine familiar forms such as candies and everyday objects. Her meticulous craftsmanship and conceptual approach elevate the ordinary into a new sensory realm, revealing a beauty that is both restrained and deeply resonant. By seamlessly blending cultural references from East and West, her work creates a quiet yet compelling dialogue between tradition and modernity, intimacy and spectacle.
At the center of this presentation is Chung’s signature Candy Series. In these works, she transforms ordinary sweets into iridescent mother-of-pearl objects, turning simple, ephemeral items into meditative and symbolic forms. These pieces evoke nostalgia and sensory memory while prompting reflection on value and permanence. By using mother-of-pearl—a material historically associated with refinement, luxury, and heritage—Chung imbues fleeting moments with a sense of reverence and endurance.
The artist states,
“I see ordinariness as a kind of quiet boldness.”
In an era driven by social media, where uniqueness and perfection are relentlessly demanded, she finds meaning in the subtle, often overlooked moments that shape daily life. Her practice explores the radical potential of intimacy rather than monumental gesture, inviting viewers to pay attention to texture, recall forgotten sensations, and remain present in the “here and now.”
Beneath the surface beauty lies a deeper investigation into materiality. Mother-of-pearl is a biological substance that grows slowly, shaped over time by environmental conditions—embodying a cosmology of slowness at the cellular level. When this slow-growing, luminous material is paired with plastic wrappers or candy molds—the very symbols of disposability—a distinctive tension emerges. Past and present seem to converge upon a single shimmering surface.
Her working methodology carries a quiet feminist dimension. Chung’s dedication to repetition, precision, and care echoes forms of labor traditionally associated with women—forms often undervalued within the male-centered narratives of modern and conceptual art. Rather than rejecting the domestic, the decorative, or the small, she reframes them as sites of ethical engagement and subtle resistance.
Sunjoo Chung’s practice is less about telling stories than creating conditions for stories to arise. Her works function not merely as reflective surfaces but as mirrors that turn the viewer inward. They reveal that even the smallest objects hold entire worlds of memory, culture, and emotion. Ultimately, her work urges us to look again—to slow down—and to approach the ordinary with reverence.