Education:
2017 - 2019 MA, sculpture - Royal College of Art, London
1999 - 2002 BFA - Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art , Oxford University
Selected Exhibitions:
01/2017 WIP - RCA Sculpture, London
09/2017 Hanes: tales, stories, legends & myths - Aberystwyth Arts Centre
07/2017 The Forest at the End of the World - Blue Ginger Gallery, Herefordshire
05/2017 Embodied Cartographies - Walcot Chapel, Bath (as part of Fringe Arts Bath)
05/2017 Beasts of the Mabinogion - Oriel CRiC, Crickhowell
03/2017 The Words Come From the Land and the Sea Takes Them - Porth Melgan, St. Davids, Pembrokeshire
02/2017 Art + Text - 44AD, Bath
10/2016 RWA164 - Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
10/2016 Art Language Location - Cambridge
10/2016 Wells Art Contemporary 2016 - Bishops Palace, Wells
05/2016 TimeFrame - 94 Walcot st, Bath (as part of Fringe Arts Bath)
03/2016 The Peace of Wild Things - Blue Ginger Gallery, Herefordshire
02/2016 OV Mixed Media - Sir Terry Frost Gallery, Worcester
10/2015 RWA163 - Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
10/2015 Art Language Location - Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge
06/2015 Beginning Times - The Globe at Hay, Hay-on-Wye (solo)
05/2015 Love and Death @ Walcot Chapel - Walcot Chapel, Bath (as part of Fringe Arts Bath)
10/2014 Art Gemini Prize 2014 Exhibition - Tri-Space Gallery, London
10/2014 East-West Art Award Competition (EWAAC) 2014 Exhibition - La Galleria, London
06/2014 At Home With Strangers - Design Festa Gallery, Tokyo (solo)
03/2014 New Artist Fair - Candid Arts Galleries, London
10/2013 Vienna Showcase - MOYA, Vienna, Austria
09/2013 Herefordshire Art Week - Blue Ginger Gallery, Herefordshire
09/2013 New Artist Fair - Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, London
07/2012 ThreeNine and Friends - Bristol
04/2012 Fringe Arts Bath Open Exhibition - The Old Officer's Club, Bath
07/2002 Ruskin Degree Show - Ruskin School, Oxford
03/2002 Becks Futures Student Prize 2002 - ICA, London (and Touring)
Awards, Residencies and Publications:
09-10/2016 Mustarinda, Finland - Residency
10/2016 Wells Art Contemporary 2016 - Shortlisted
10/2015 Art Language Location, ALL2015 award - Winner
10/2014 The State of Art: Landscape & Portrait #1 - Bare Hill Publishing
09/2014 ArtGeminiPrize 2014 - Shortlisted
09/2014 East-West Art Award Competition (EWAAC) 2014 - Finalist
02/2013 BYVM X Burton Snowboards Design competition - Finalist
07/2002 Becks Futures Student Prize for Film and Video 2002 - Shortlisted and placed 3rd
10/2015 Interview for Art Language Location
2017 - 2019 MA, sculpture - Royal College of Art, London
1999 - 2002 BFA - Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art , Oxford University
Selected Exhibitions:
01/2017 WIP - RCA Sculpture, London
09/2017 Hanes: tales, stories, legends & myths - Aberystwyth Arts Centre
07/2017 The Forest at the End of the World - Blue Ginger Gallery, Herefordshire
05/2017 Embodied Cartographies - Walcot Chapel, Bath (as part of Fringe Arts Bath)
05/2017 Beasts of the Mabinogion - Oriel CRiC, Crickhowell
03/2017 The Words Come From the Land and the Sea Takes Them - Porth Melgan, St. Davids, Pembrokeshire
02/2017 Art + Text - 44AD, Bath
10/2016 RWA164 - Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
10/2016 Art Language Location - Cambridge
10/2016 Wells Art Contemporary 2016 - Bishops Palace, Wells
05/2016 TimeFrame - 94 Walcot st, Bath (as part of Fringe Arts Bath)
03/2016 The Peace of Wild Things - Blue Ginger Gallery, Herefordshire
02/2016 OV Mixed Media - Sir Terry Frost Gallery, Worcester
10/2015 RWA163 - Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
10/2015 Art Language Location - Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge
06/2015 Beginning Times - The Globe at Hay, Hay-on-Wye (solo)
05/2015 Love and Death @ Walcot Chapel - Walcot Chapel, Bath (as part of Fringe Arts Bath)
10/2014 Art Gemini Prize 2014 Exhibition - Tri-Space Gallery, London
10/2014 East-West Art Award Competition (EWAAC) 2014 Exhibition - La Galleria, London
06/2014 At Home With Strangers - Design Festa Gallery, Tokyo (solo)
03/2014 New Artist Fair - Candid Arts Galleries, London
10/2013 Vienna Showcase - MOYA, Vienna, Austria
09/2013 Herefordshire Art Week - Blue Ginger Gallery, Herefordshire
09/2013 New Artist Fair - Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, London
07/2012 ThreeNine and Friends - Bristol
04/2012 Fringe Arts Bath Open Exhibition - The Old Officer's Club, Bath
07/2002 Ruskin Degree Show - Ruskin School, Oxford
03/2002 Becks Futures Student Prize 2002 - ICA, London (and Touring)
Awards, Residencies and Publications:
09-10/2016 Mustarinda, Finland - Residency
10/2016 Wells Art Contemporary 2016 - Shortlisted
10/2015 Art Language Location, ALL2015 award - Winner
10/2014 The State of Art: Landscape & Portrait #1 - Bare Hill Publishing
09/2014 ArtGeminiPrize 2014 - Shortlisted
09/2014 East-West Art Award Competition (EWAAC) 2014 - Finalist
02/2013 BYVM X Burton Snowboards Design competition - Finalist
07/2002 Becks Futures Student Prize for Film and Video 2002 - Shortlisted and placed 3rd
10/2015 Interview for Art Language Location
Kenji Lim is a British artist living and working in London and Herefordshire, England. He is currently studying for an MA in sculpture at the Royal College of Art, London and has a BFA from Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, University of Oxford, 1999-2002. Working across multiple disciplines - including painting, drawing, installation and text - his work examines feelings of belonging and place using the language of folklore and cultural memory to investigate how the landscape shapes us as communities and individuals.
The influence of printmaking and etchings on Lim’s work can be seen in his atmospheric pen and ink drawings and the highly restricted colour palette of the paintings. This idea of mark making to create form and texture is translated into monumental form in large canvases where small brush marks transform the surface into a tapestry in paint. The architectural scale of these paintings marks them as immersive experiences for the viewer.
In his installations Lim works with found natural materials such as branches and stone, but also with materials such as yarn, which have undergone a process which makes them both organic and man-made. The use of such materials in a deliberate and crafted, but ambiguous manner in the landscape and creates a conceptual tension and unease between the environment and how we had imagined it to be. He is particularly interested in the moment of distance between observer and environment, and how it can make the familiar unfamiliar, and the possessed unpossessed.
This feeling of tension between the viewer and the environment is also present in Lim’s paintings and drawings. Huts and houses found in forests, mountains, and under bridges are welcoming places of refuge but also threatening. We are simultaneously wary, fearful and enchanted. Nostalgia for these traditional narratives and the ambiguity between their familiarity, perceived security, and the threats described by them, causes an emotional tension in our engagement with the scene. The enigmatic nature of our encounters leads to questions about our connectedness to landscape, to our past, and to our cultural memory.
The influence of printmaking and etchings on Lim’s work can be seen in his atmospheric pen and ink drawings and the highly restricted colour palette of the paintings. This idea of mark making to create form and texture is translated into monumental form in large canvases where small brush marks transform the surface into a tapestry in paint. The architectural scale of these paintings marks them as immersive experiences for the viewer.
In his installations Lim works with found natural materials such as branches and stone, but also with materials such as yarn, which have undergone a process which makes them both organic and man-made. The use of such materials in a deliberate and crafted, but ambiguous manner in the landscape and creates a conceptual tension and unease between the environment and how we had imagined it to be. He is particularly interested in the moment of distance between observer and environment, and how it can make the familiar unfamiliar, and the possessed unpossessed.
This feeling of tension between the viewer and the environment is also present in Lim’s paintings and drawings. Huts and houses found in forests, mountains, and under bridges are welcoming places of refuge but also threatening. We are simultaneously wary, fearful and enchanted. Nostalgia for these traditional narratives and the ambiguity between their familiarity, perceived security, and the threats described by them, causes an emotional tension in our engagement with the scene. The enigmatic nature of our encounters leads to questions about our connectedness to landscape, to our past, and to our cultural memory.
