Eunha Kim is a Korean-born artist based in New York City. Her work explores the shifting boundaries between myth, the fantastical, and everyday life, interwoven with her personal experiences. The mask-like faces that recur in her paintings originate from traditional Korean masks once used by commoners to mock the noble class. Initially drawn to these masks as symbols of defiance—mirroring her own sense of marginality as an immigrant in the United States—Kim has gradually transformed them into faces marked by longing, vulnerability, and disorientation. Drawing inspiration from everyday observations, Korean folk art traditions such as Minhwa, and the rich lineage of old masters, her practice remains in constant dialogue with the history of painting.
Figures in Kim’s work hover between the real and the fantastical, suspended in weightless, ambiguous spaces that reflect her experience of living between two worlds. At once burdened and sheltered, they appear as totemic presences that sometimes hold orbs transformed from masks and faces. Alongside these figures, the wandering guardian tiger drawn from Minhwa traditions moves through her dreamlike landscapes, serving as a recurring metaphor. Yet her work also carries a bright, humorous spirit: figures and animals are rendered with playfulness and vivid color, allowing moments of lightness to emerge in otherwise contemplative scenes.
