Meet Jung Soo Kim of Chicago

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jung Soo Kim.

Hi Jung Soo, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was born and raised in Seoul, and I’ve been drawn to art for as long as I can remember. Early on, I didn’t fully understand why, but I was always interested in space and in how something invisible, like emotion or memory, could be translated into a sensory experience.

During my studies, I began to focus on how the body relates to its surroundings, and how perception shifts depending on context. I became interested in how space transforms into place through accumulated narratives and lived experience. This led me to explore ideas of personal space, identity, and eventually how these concepts expand into digital and mediated environments.

After moving to Chicago and completing my MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, my practice became more research-driven and site-responsive. I started working directly with specific places by collecting stories, observing environments, and asking what kinds of perceptual or emotional residues remain within them. I translate these experiences into installations that reveal the relationship between the body and its environment.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Not at all. I don’t think art is something that can be resolved through clear, logical answers. It’s not as simple as A = B, there are layers of subtle emotions and complexities in between. Learning how to face and navigate those in-between spaces is essential for an artist.

But I wasn’t always someone who was sensitive to those nuances. I used to feel quite blunt, even disconnected at times. It took me a long time to recognize and confront the more delicate emotional layers within my own experience. That process has been one of the biggest challenges in my practice, but also one of the most important parts of my growth.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
My work explores how human presence and space shape one another, and what emerges from that interaction. I primarily work through installation and site-responsive research, creating immersive environments that engage perception through light, sound, material, and movement.

I specialize in translating temporal conditions into spatial experience. In urban contexts, I focus on speed—abstracting fleeting impressions such as light, movement, and fragmented encounters into visual and sculptural forms. In contrast, my work in natural environments engages slower temporalities, examining how memory and narrative accumulate through geological time, material, and human presence.

What sets my work apart is this movement between fast and slow temporal speeds. Rather than representing space as fixed, I approach it as something continuously shaped through perception and duration. My installations are not just objects, but conditions where viewers can physically experience how space shifts, accumulates, and transforms.

What I’m most proud of is developing a practice that allows people to become more aware of their own perception—creating moments where something usually unnoticed, fleeting, or invisible becomes tangible and shared.

Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
The ability to approach space as something fluid and constantly shifting, and to sense the emotional and personal meanings people attach to it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://kimjungsoo.art/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kimjungsoo_studio/

Image Credits
Artist, Kim, Jung Soo