Yunhwan Kim

Yunhwan Kim breaks new ground with the latest work in his popular Unintended Series. His dynamic carved wood hanging cabinet showcases the artist’s respect for the tradition of cabinet making and sculptural furniture. The ash wood case and doors are sandblasted to exaggerate the wood’s grain and stained jet black with a urethane finish. The bi-fold doors open to reveal the back of the cabinet faced with a bronze colored mirror. Two gold-plated aluminum sculptural shelves are cast to mimic the texture of the wood case and doors. His hands-on approach and solitary studio practice is much like the designers associated with the American Craft Movement that took place in the second part of the twentieth century. The addition of metal work and high end materials places Kim’s latest work firmly in the contemporary realm.

Kim’s remarkable hand-carved furniture began as series of small objects – trays, vessels, bowls – that had, what he calls, “unintended shapes.” Scrutinizing these objects, Kim found that by connecting them, reversing them to expose dips and arcs, and modifying the shapes, the works unfolded, taking on a life of their own. Eventually, having connected more than 40 elements into one large abstract piece, the curve and shape of a cabinet door emerged and the independent objects grew naturally into Kim’s unique sculptural furniture.

Irregular, improvisational and organic, Kim’s forms vaguely reflect the silhouette of spilled water. There is a fluid, topographic quality defined by large contoured shapes which are interconnected by tributary or branch-like forms.