Young-Sung Kim is passionate about fishes. No, he doesn’t keep them in his aquarium but paints them in such life-like details that one is left wondering whether they’re real fishes. Born in Seoul, South Korea, this artist is bestowed with an artistic bent of mind and immense artistic talent.
One thing that hits the viewers in Kim’s paintings is the amazing contrast he manages to bring about between the living and the material. It’s one thing to paint a fish, complete with its scales and fins, to make it look like the real thing, but quite another to realistically paint the glass container that it’s in! This amazing artist beautifully contrasts the fish contained in a glass container or a frog sitting on a spoon. His paintings depict a beautiful coexistence of the living and the non-living.
That Kim was a gifted artist was apparent since his childhood. So, it wasn’t surprising that he went on to earn a degree in Fine Art from the Department of Painting, College of Fine Art, Hongik University in Seoul, South Korea. It’s to the credit of this incredible artist to choose fish and other aquatic animals as his subjects and contrast them with their inanimate environment.
Kim’s beautiful works have been displayed the world over in exhibitions. His solo exhibitions include Redsea Gallery Invitational, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia; COOHAUS ART, New York, USA; Korea Youth K Invitational, Seoul, South Korea; and others. Kim has also participated in group exhibitions, such as SEE: New Hyperrealism, Hongik Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea; A Sustaining Life, Waterfall Gallery, New York, USA; Winter Show 2016, Plus One Gallery, London, UK; and many more.
Kim’s collection can be found in the Long Museum, Seoul Museum of Art, Art Retreat Museum, and others. He’s also a recipient of many awards, such as Encouragement Prize awarded by the 1997 MBC Art Competition; Outstanding Prize bestowed by New-Frontier Competition; Young Artist Awards of Korea in 1996 Korea Youth Biennale; and more. Besides this, his paintings are also part of numerous private collections.
Kim enjoys a following of over 200,000 fans on Instagram alone. His paintings can be purchased from several art websites.
Young-sung Kim
