Kris Kim

Could you describe the process of creating your abstract pointillism paintings? How do you integrate data visualization into your work?

The process of creating these paintings involves a unique blend of art and data. Semiotic signs are transfigured into color values using mathematical and numerical codes. This algorithmic mechanism sublimates the text into quantifiable data, which is then reshaped visually into abstract forms. Each painting is both a work of abstract art and a record of the coded information.

The color values derived from the coded text build up the canvas through the pixelation, where distinct planes of color are placed to create a larger image. This introduces proliferating vestiges of the text, with each point constituting a piece of the overall puzzle.

This is  like a creative unfolding that progresses through interpretation and interaction. Rather than being a fixed endpoint, each work is open-ended, evolving through the interplay of data, form, and perception while existing in a state of flux. The original source is a catalyst for the creation of new meaning as it emerges and solidifies an unfolding narrative. The painting finds its completeness in the process of ongoing interpretation, where the viewer’s personal resonance becomes a vital part of it.

Kris Kim | Morphogenesis | 2024

How do you select the numeric data you visualize, and what role does it play in shaping the final composition?

When selecting the numeric data to visualize in my work, I draw from a diverse range of materials, including literature, mythology, history, everyday words from social media, and other cultural texts. 

The sources often contain layers of meaning or a tapestry of ideas that can be explored through re-envisioning. Whether it’s the timeless narratives found in mythology or the complex dynamics of contemporary events, both carry sociocultural, historical, and metaphysical implications. By drawing from these texts, the painting weaves together diverse threads of meaning, allowing one to engage with the artwork on multiple levels. The reimagining of them creates space for personal interpretation, inviting the viewer to reflect on how they resonate in their perception. 

Simultaneously, text becomes more than abstract content in the painting; it metamorphoses into a physical, visual form on the canvas as materialized information. The semiotic components, once extracted from these antecedents, are morphed into color values through pixelation, allowing it to emerge as an abstract dimension. This process of converting data into visual art reconstitutes it from the subtextual, logical state into a medium for aesthetic exploration. 

Your work merges verbal and non-linguistic information. How do you decide on the balance between the two in each piece?     

The balance between verbal and non-linguistic information creates a liminal space between language and abstraction. The verbal information, drawn from literal text, is encoded into numeric data, which ultimately influences the visual composition through color, form, and structure. The non-linguistic information is the visual language of the painting, and the process of reshaping it into a hylozoistic pulse takes place in one’s perception. 

The non-linguistic information—the visual language of the painting—becomes the focal point, allowing the viewer to experience the work as a perceptual procession. The transformation of this visual language occurs in one’s cognitive process, creating a space that is open to a spectrum of meanings. The relationship between the verbal and non-linguistic is not fixed but remains fluid, with the text and visual elements transubstantiating. This approach enables a polyphonous experience, where the verbal and non-linguistic elements coexist and constantly evolve. 

Kris Kim | Infinite | 2024

What inspired you to explore the connection between documentary materials and abstract imagery?

The connection between textual source and abstract imagery paves the way for a more dynamic exploration of how we experience and interpret the world. Informational data is often seen as concrete and rooted in facts. However, when reimagined through abstraction, it opens up new possibilities for interpretation, where the lines between actuality and perception begin to converge. This merging of the factual with abstract creates a more layered understanding of both the material and the intrinsic dimensions of human experience.

When semiotic materials are reinterpreted through abstract forms, they prompt one to engage with the idea that understanding is not fixed or static. Instead, it is perpetually unveiling, shaped by personal experiences, intuitive responses, and shifting perspectives. Abstraction allows for this crisscrossing by dissolving boundaries between the literal and the conceptual, considering the complexities of reality from multiple viewpoints.  

The viewer is invited to move beyond the surface level of a text or image and initiate a meaningful, self-reflective experience. The combination of factual elements with abstract forms activates a process of discovery, where meaning is not simply presented but is actively shaped by the viewer. This interaction reflects how we continually reinterpret and reframe our understanding of the world, suggesting that perception is not a fixed epistemological state but rather an ongoing, multifaceted experience that is always in motion. 

Illusionistic space is a strong element in your paintings. How do you achieve this sense of depth through flat tessellated planes?

The paintings are composed of tessellated planes built from square-shaped “pixels,” evoking a sense of depth and space through the interplay of color contrast, arrangement, and repetition. I focus on the relationships between these colors and their fragmentation to create an optical rhythm and fluidity.

The juxtaposition of chiaroscuro colors forms a unique topography and sense of perspective, while the procession of bites and bytes builds a perceptual spatiality as the viewer’s eyes navigate the work’s surface.The visual effects of transposed colors and the gradients of pixels, with the blocky structure, induce tension between the grid-like surface and the suggestion of depth, leading to an interplay between symmetry and shifting dimensionality. 

Kris Kim | Phonetics | 2024

How do you see the relationship between reality and simulacra evolving in your art?

It is an exploration of how we perceive and engage with the world through layers of abstraction and representation. The lines between what is original and what is a reimagined version or reflection of it are blurred. The semiotic sources, such as literal text or data, are grounded in the work as tangible, definable information. However, once sublimated into abstract color and form, these materials become a new entity—distilled representations that are no longer tethered to their meaning, but instead take on open-ended interpretations.               

In an age where the meaning of data, symbols, and images are constantly reshaping, the boundary between the source and icon becomes increasingly shifting. The painting reflects this cadential nature by incorporating both the factual and the abstract, the denotative and the arbitrary, simultaneously. It reveals how we construct meaning from both the literal and the abstract, catalyzing a renewed understanding of the realities we engage with in our everyday lives. 

Kris Kim | Festival | 2024