Sophia Kyungwon Kim

Standing before the works of Toronto-based artist Sophia Kyungwon Kim, we are first captivated by a warm sense of 'connection.' The reason her work draws particular attention from the art world is not simply due to its aesthetic beauty, but because her highly unique background before entering the path of art adds profound depth to her creations. She served as a police officer maintaining public order for 22 long years. The fact that someone who worked for over two decades in a cold, rational world governed by rules and law is now speaking of 'care' and 'motherhood' using thread and fabric—the softest materials in the world—offers a dramatic and moving impact in itself. This distinctive life journey reveals an unshakeable authenticity and deep insight into life within her works that no other artist could ever replicate.

Recently, her artistic scope has been expanding from two-dimensional paintings to three-dimensional sculptures. Behind this shift lies not only her philosophy as an artist but also a very practical and beautiful reason rooted in her life as a mother raising four children. When it became practically difficult to focus on painting for long stretches while caring for her kids, she began utilizing the fragmented moments of her daily routine. Waiting in the car for her children or during brief moments of preparing meals, she focused on her fingertips. Instead of sitting in front of a canvas observing the world, she adopted thread and fabric—materials she could directly touch and feel with her hands—as her medium. If a flat surface is a record of thought, her three-dimensional work is a record of 'labor' physically endured by the artist's own bodily movements. The process of soft fabric being stuffed with cotton to gain volume, and those pieces gathering to fill a space, closely resembles how invisible touches of care accumulate to robustly support a family.