Interview by Jimon

1-Where do you reside and work currently? I am currently based in British Columbia, Canada. I moved back from NYC last year after finishing school and gaining some professional experience.

2-One word to describe Ji Woo Kim? Tenacious.

3-Did you have any training for art or is it inherent? I received my Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting with Highest Honors along with a Minor in Art History from Pratt Institute in 2018.  It is still very much inherent though, as visual art was something I enjoyed exploring as a child; I also don’t think I would necessarily classify my higher education as “training” for the arts, as it wasn’t so much based on the technical sides of drawing or painting, but was rather an experience that expanded my knowledge on how to see, think, and talk about art in a more polished manner, and then being given the opportunity to apply this to my own work.

4-Do you remember the first piece of art that you created? I don’t recall the first piece, but when I think back to art and my childhood, I always think of drawing with my uncle, who is an architect. When I was about 6-8 years old, we would lay huge sheets of white paper on the floor and draw whatever came to mind. We often created narratives like drawing a girl and then a crazy house that she lives in, like one with a toilet swing hanging down from the second floor. We would continue to add on to the narrative by drawing a pet that was a dog-fish hybrid or a giraffe-bird hybrid. Around that time, he also made me a 15-page book of his own fashion illustrations for me to color during an 11-hour flight to South Korea, which I still have in my desk drawers.

5-When did you first start making art and what led you to start? Again, I think drawing sessions with my uncle were a big influence, as it was what initially got me interested in improving my drawing skills as a child, leading to practice and more time spent on creative processes.

6-Best advice you ever received in regards to your art? I think the best advice I received was in school, when I was told to scale up and go big. Working on larger surfaces definitely changes how you look at and work with marks of different sizes, which consequently changes the way you approach smaller works as well.

7-What influences you as an artist? As is shown in my current body of work, I’m most heavily influenced by my personal experience of growing up as a first-generation immigrant. I enjoy reading articles or even posts on social media that are specific to the Asian/Asian American experience; over the past few years, there has been a plethora of information revolving around the topic made available through people sharing their own stories and anecdotes on social media platforms and online communities. I’m able to find interesting videos on Youtube as well, such as docuseries and interviews on Asian American adoptees.

8-If you hosted a TV talk show, we would call it “The Ji Woo Hour,” who would be your first guest? Sandra Oh. A couple months ago, I watched an interview of her done by Sharon Choi, Bong Joon-Ho’s translator during the Parasite press tour. During the interview, the two share a conversation on issues of race and the unique experiences one goes through as an Asian American or someone who grows up as a minority, in comparison to people who have never had that experience and therefore see and perceive things in a different light. This is something that I have always talked about and continue to ponder on, so I was ecstatic to hear them talk about such issues. I would love to have an in-depth discussion with her on the topic.

9-How would you describe the human condition at the moment in time? Worrisome

10-What is the most extravagant thing you have done? I’m not sure if I’ve done anything that could be called extravagant.

11-Do you have any hobbies? When I’m not in the studio, I spend most of my time watching movies or reading. I’m also a very curious person by nature, so I spend a large portion of my day on Google, searching and taking in information on random questions that pop into my head, like what happens to the baby if a pregnant woman falls into a coma, or why and when people first developed a disgust or fear towards bugs. How did they come to be regarded as disgusting, and is our reaction to it an innate one or have we been conditioned to have an aversion to it?

12-How many pairs of shoes do you own? I don’t know off the top of my head, but I basically only ever wear one pair, so I guess one is all I need!

13-Are you an optimist, pessimist or realist? An optimistic pessimist.

14-What scares you the most? Living a mundane life with no progress or changes.

15-If you could have a super power what would it be? Teleportation to minimize transit times.

16-What is something you would like to change? Deep-rooted xenophobia, systemic racism, microaggressions.

17-How do you describe success as an artist? In the simplest terms, success as an artist would be being able to make a living out of your creative process, seeing your visions translated into the tangible, and having the benefit of making your biggest interest or “hobby” into your career.

18-Are the colors in your art indicative of your state of mind? I would think they are subconsciously indicative to a certain degree, although most color choices are made in relation to the painting itself. Meaning, the previous color choice made and laid down on a certain area of the canvas obviously affects my choice of the next color, which then affects the next and so on. Oftentimes, I’ll use a certain color that I’m drawn to, but then see that it doesn’t have the effect I desired upon laying it down, so I adjust or replace the color to make it work compositionally.

19-How would you like to be seen as an artist years from now? I want to be seen as someone who contributes to increasing the visibility of Asian/Asian-American artists in the art world. I would like to become someone who assists in making sure seeing Asian faces in portraiture becomes a norm, with such works of art being shown in more galleries, hung on museum walls, and ultimately be taught and discussed about in art history classes in the future.

20-Do you have a place/person/thing that you visit for inspiration? I think anything I see, read, watch, listen to and talk about all feed into my work in one way or another. If we go into the specifics though, I do spend a lot of time looking out my window. I currently live in a very scenic neighborhood with huge coniferous trees just outside my window, which allows me to observe the natural colors of the trees in different lighting and times of day, and also the way they move in the wind. I think this ultimately affects the way I approach depicting nature in my paintings.

21-If you could have dinner with 3 artists living/dead who would be at your table? Arshile Gorky, Alice Neel, Edvard Munch.

22-Name three things you can’t live without in your studio? Music, adequate lighting, Master’s Hand Soap.

23-How would someone find you on social media? @jiweowmeow

24-Please name the first thing that comes to your mind while reading the following:

Art= Routine

Food= Reflux

Sports= The Olympics

Politics= November/the election

Poor= Frustration

Rich= Apathetic

Luxury= Consumerism

Sex= Nature

Picasso= Blue Period

God= Indifferent

Religion= Neutral