Heechan Kim

Heechan Kim is an object maker and 2024, Special Mention finalist of the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize. He applies traditional craft techniques in new contexts to reimagine and explore outcomes, and challenge craft's visual potential. Kim has been investigating the relationship between the maker's hand and materials. Kim is currently a faculty member of Parsons School of Design, the City College of New York, teaching product design and sculpture. He received a MFA in woodworking and furniture design from Rochester Institute of Technology, a BFA in metal arts and jewellery from Seoul National University.

Kim's work showcases a lively and dynamic vitality on every surface, achieved through the ways in which the pieces of wood and the singular mass complement each other. The wood's innate resilience, as it tries to revert to its original shape, unknowingly generates a vibrant energy in his work. This innovative kinetic energy arises only when the wood's direction and the artist's intention gracefully align, allowing the artist to closely communicate with the sensitive material. His work highlights the relationship between human hands and craftsmanship, resulting in a naturalness that is both unfamiliar and unpretentious.

The unique sense of form and volume in Kim's work creates a third conceptual space full of tension between the work and the audience. The distinct separation between the interior and exterior of the sculpture invites the viewer to delve into its inner workings, while simultaneously rendering this division irrelevant. His work evokes the human body and its organs, or at times conveys a hidden narrative. The true value of his work becomes apparent as one observes the subtle implications in its visible form and process, the state of solidarity and coexistence symbolised by the structure that evokes the image of humans standing back to back with their hands locked, and the anticipation for an emotional exchange within this state.

Kim's works have been exhibited at Collect Art Fair, Frieze Seoul, and can be found in the permanent collection of the Loewe Foundation and National Museums, Northern Ireland.