Kim Bohie's Four-Decade Artistic Evolution Blends Korean and Western Traditions

Kim Bohie's artistic practice over four decades merges Korean and Western techniques, using traditional Korean paper, canvas, inks, and acrylics. Her work explores nature and landscape, depicting plant life and seascapes that balance flatness with three-dimensionality. Since moving to Jeju Island over 20 years ago, her paintings have focused on its natural landscapes, flowers, palm trees, and sea. Early figurative works like Graduation (1981) and Immersion (1984) featured solitary female figures, while recent series such as Jungmoon (2020) capture road scenes at dusk. The Seeds series (2020–) expresses the potential energy inside seeds through imagined colors and shapes. Kim studied Korean-style painting at Ewha Womans University, where professors disliked color painting and nude works, but she pursued them freely. She draws inspiration from music by Johann Sebastian Bach and Hwang Byung-ki, architecture by Luis Barragán and Zaha Hadid, and writings by Rachel Carson and Psalm 8 of the Bible. Her shift from human figures to nature reflects a belief that humans are a small part of nature, coexisting with it. Korean art critic Oh Kwangsoo described her ink-wash paintings as a 'landscape of meditation.' Kim's work avoids dichotomies, expressing both abstract and realistic characteristics of nature, aiming for universal appreciation beyond local meanings.