New York-based artist Sky Kim (b. Seoul, South Korea) is known for her meticulously patterned, incantatory watercolors. Her paintings operate as optical illusions inviting the viewer into a meditative state of increased self-awareness and tranquility.

The labor intensive nature of Kim’s work is critical to understanding its broader meaning. She notes that “Time is the most precious thing to me.” The time invested in her work is meditational and allows her to access a different, transcendental state of mind. Kim draws inspiration from quantum physics, the study of matter and energy at the most fundamental levels, and sacred geometry, which asserts that certain geometrical shapes and proportions embody sacred meanings.

Kim earned a M.F.A in Painting from Pratt Institute, and won the National Museum of Contemporary Art’s National Korean Art Competition Awards and a Pratt Institute Art Grant. Her work has been exhibited at major venues and art fairs throughout the world, including the Toronto International Art Fair, GLAAD Art Auction, DUMBO Arts Festival, Gwangju Biennale, MOCA DC, Governors Island Art Fair, and Art Miami. She has lectured as a guest artist at several universities.

Incorporating circles and sacred spirals in her work, Sky draws on physics as an inspiration, “as a means of trying to figure out what we are made of and who we are. I believe in oneness.” Her repetitive patterns create vibrations and can function as optical illusions, while awakening emotions through her scientific and spiritual queries. The multiverse is a philosophical concept that suggests there are numerous, parallel universes overlapping our own, each with its own unique trajectories and histories. Kim’s work often references the parallel worlds that define the multiverse. For instance, inner vs. outer space is a common motif in her art, and her intricate watercolor scrolls straddle both 2- and 3-dimensional space simultaneously.

The many marine-related themes in Kim’s work also originate from her pervasive interest in the multiverse. The ocean is one of the few observable alternate worlds here on Earth. Kim notes her fascination with odd sea creatures, describing how she is “…glued to their ballerina-like movements and mysteriously transparent bodies and luminosity. Such fragile aquatic forms including soft globular colonies in my work hints at our most ancient unicellular ancestors.” Kim’s work has many compositional affinities with traditional mandalas, which use repetitive patterns as instruments of meditation. Indeed, she mentions that “repeating patterns is like citing a mantra over and over again,” and that the creation of her work is a deeply meditational act. 

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