Daebie Kim (b. 1994) is a South Korean artist whose work explores the metaphysical conditions of human existence through painting. Drawing from both Eastern philosophy and contemporary figuration, her compositions are steeped in religious art and constructed through formal experimentation with color, structure, and space. She holds a dual bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts and Art History from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and is set to pursue her M.F.A. in Studio Art at Hunter College, City University of New York, in Fall 2025. She currently lives and works between Seoul and New York.

Kim’s works investigate how symbolic forms—particularly those tied to the body, vision, and floral structures—can be dismantled and reassembled into spatial metaphors for absence, desire, or transcendence. Her use of central voids or “portals” disrupts conventional figure-ground relationships and opens up narrative ambiguity within the painted surface. Rather than representing specific subjects, her paintings stage encounters with states of unknowing, where forms hover between legibility and dissolution.

Her work has been presented in solo exhibitions at POST and Humorgarmgot (Seoul, South Korea) and Mythtake Museum (Gapyeong, South Korea), as well as in international group exhibitions including Femalarity at Volery Gallery (Dubai) and Trioque at The Shophouse (Hong Kong). In 2020, she participated in the PINEA-LINEA DE COSTA artist residency in Rota, Spain.

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CONTACT
︎ dkim2016@gmail.com
︎ painter_daeb_

EDUCATION
2025–2028 Hunter College, New York, US (expected)
- M.F.A. in Studio Art
2016 University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, US
- B.A. in Fine Arts, B.A. in Art History

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024 Heading Vectors, POST, Seoul, South Korea
2022 Emerging in the Dark, Humorgarmgot, Seoul, South Korea
2015 Works on Paper, Mythtake Museum, Gapyeong, South Korea

GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023 Femalarity, Volery Gallery, Dubai, UAE
2023 Trioque, The SHOPHOUSE Hong Kong, Hong Kong
2023 Breathing Still Life, FFF Gallery, Seoul , South Korea
2022 Dear You Are My Paper, Humorgarmgot Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
2020 Frozen Space, SPACE M, Seoul, South Korea
2020 The Language of Rawness, SPACE M, Seoul, South Korea
2020 Portrait of Being, Espacio PINEA Gallery, Rota, Spain
2016 Senior Discount, New Wight Gallery at UCLA, Los Angeles, US
2016 By the Nature for the Nature, Broad Art Center at UCLA, Los Angeles, US
2016 Layers, OTIS College of Art & Design, Los Angeles, US
2016 Juried Exhibition curated by Rita Gonzalez (Head Curator at the Contemporary Art Department at LACMA), New Wight Gallery at UCLA, Los Angeles, US

ARTIST RESIDENCY
2020 PINEA-LINEA DE COSTA Artist in Residence, Spain