Sang Woo Kim interrogates identity, cultural duality and the gaze, drawing deeply from his experience as a first-generation immigrant. Born in Seoul and raised in London by traditional Korean parents, Kim’s work reflects the complexities of navigating displacement and belonging in a predominantly Western environment. Themes of perception, self-construction and the impact of societal frameworks are central to his art. Kim’s recent self-portraits, rendered with gestural precision, reclaim agency over his racialisation as a Korean man in British society and after years as a fashion model subjected to others’ visions. He confronts the challenges of identity in the modern social media age, where personas are layered constructs, often crafted for external validation. Through tightly cropped perspectives, manipulated imagery and pigment transfers, Kim deconstructs the relationship between photography and painting. His works challenges expectations of identity and representation, creating a dynamic and deeply personal theatre of self-reflection and cultural critique.
 

Sang Woo Kim (b. 1994, Seoul, South Korea; lives and works in London, UK). Recent solo exhibitions include ‘The Seer, The Seen’, Herald St, London (2024/2025); ‘Glance’ & ‘Ways of Seeing’, Sébastien Bertrand, Geneva (2024). Recent group exhibitions include ‘Fleurs du mal’, Silke Lindner, New York (2025); ‘Yay, to have a mouth!’, Rose Easton & Ginny on Frederick, London (2025); ‘Bright Star’, Mattia de Luca, Rome (2025); ‘Ponyshow’, Amity, Los Angeles (2025); ‘MAMCO, from Memory’, MAMCO Museum, Geneva (2024); ‘My Story Gallery’, High Art + Sister, Seoul (2024); ‘Portrait of a Man’, X Museum, Beijing (2024); ‘Recital’, Arcadia Missa, London (2024); ‘The Blue Hour’, Union Pacific, London (2024); and ‘Present Tense’, Hauser & Wirth, Somerset (2024). Public collections include MAMCO Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Geneva; and X Museum, Beijing.

 

Image Credits: © Sang Woo Kim. Courtesy the artist and Herald St, London. Photo by Jack Elliot Edwards.