Kim en Joong was born in Booyo, South Korea during the occupation by the Japanese in 1940. Following time spent studying fine art and history of art at the Art Academy and Seoul University in Korea and Fribourg University in Switzerland, he entered the Dominican Order in 1970 and has lived and worked in Paris, France ever since. Despite en Joong’s commitment to abstraction, he is largely influenced by figurative painting, particularly Romanesque and baroque art. His faith is evident in his work, which is often executed in series that reference theological virtues, beatitudes and St. Thomas Aquinas’ Treatise of Beauty – clarity, proportion and integrity. Working in calligraphic washes of brilliant transparent colour and reflective monotone against white grounds, each of Kim en Joong’s paintings transports the viewer to another, more perfect world.
Kim en Joong has carried out numerous prestigious commissions, including a suite of paintings for Quinn Business School at UCD, Dublin, and stained glass works for Saint-Jean-Baptiste Church, Angoulême and the Dominican churches at Fribourg and Lucerne in Switzerland, amongst others. He has exhibited widely in both Europe and Asia, with solo exhibitions at Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane, Dublin; Yoshii Gallery, Tokyo; Galerie Larock-Granoff, Paris; Chosunilbo Museum, Seoul; and the Convent of Santa Sabina, Rome. Fr. Kim’s work is included in the public collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Seoul; Bundsrat, Bonn; Museum of Ostrava, Czech Republic; and the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France.
Exhibitions with Taylor Galleries:2005 Homage to James White
2000 Homage to Faith Love Hope
1997