Warm Rain and Thunder
Paul Kim
05 - 25 April 2025
How do we experience the interplay of presence and dissolution? What happens when we encounter forms that seem to shift, resisting stability, lingering between the tangible and the transient? Warm Rain and Thunder is an exploration of this liminality— of moments suspended between stillness and movement, clarity and obscurity, perception and dissolution.
Paul Kim’s practice is rooted in the tension between control and surrender, precision and fluidity. His work resists fixity, embracing transformation as a central force. There is an inherent duality at play: elements emerge only to dissolve, surfaces appear solid yet waver and images fluctuate between recognition and ambiguity. This oscillation invites a heightened awareness of time’s impermanence and the instability of meaning itself.
Composition 4A1j, 2024
Oil on wooden panel
80.3 x 65.1 cm
£1,570
Composition 4A1i (phase me), 2024
Oil on wooden panel
90.9 x 72.7 cm
£1,570
Composition 4B3 (urgency to belong), 2024
Oil and watercolour on wooden panel
130.3 x 96 cm
£3,600
Drawing from natural cycles and atmospheric phenomena, Warm Rain and Thunder considers the convergence of external and internal landscapes. The exhibition takes its name from a particular moment— a sensory imprint that is both intimate and universal, evocative yet ephemeral. Like the charged stillness before a storm or the dissolution of forms in the hazy mist of rainfall, Kim’s work thrives in the in-between, allowing contradictions to coexist.
For Kim, the notion of transformation is not limited to the natural world but extends to the psychological and emotional dimensions of human experience. The shifting states of matter— water evaporating, clouds forming, thunder rumbling— serve as metaphors for the impermanence of thoughts, memories, and emotions. Just as rain changes the texture of a surface, Kim’s work reveals how perception is altered by time, distance, and context. What initially appears concrete gradually unravels, leaving behind only traces of what was.
Composition 4B2 (in light it is lost), 2024
Oil and watercolour on wooden panel
130.3 x 96 cm
£3,600
Composition 4A1f (emending myself), 2024
Oil, watercolour, and aluminium slates on wooden panel
90.9 x 72.7 cm
£1,570
Composition 4B1 (in filth it is found), 2024
Oil and watercolour on wooden panel
130.3 x 96 cm
£3,600
Through the motif of ‘light’— symbolising knowledge, spirituality, and the search for enlightenment— Kim’s works incorporate grid patterns as representations of human rationality and the infinite flow of time while also reflecting impermanence and interconnectedness. The interplay between light, colour, and geometric abstraction embodies spiritual conflict and transcendence, inviting contemplation of the subconscious’s potential and hope.
Central to this exploration is the idea of resonance: how moments, sensations, and images echo within us long after they have passed. Kim’s practice acknowledges that meaning is never static but continuously shaped by shifting perspectives. The exhibition does not impose a singular reading but instead constructs an open space where interpretation remains fluid. This refusal of fixity mirrors the nature of memory itself— always forming, dissolving, and reforming in response to new encounters.
Composition 4A1g (limelight), 2024
Oil on wooden panel
80.3 x 65.1 cm
£1,570
Composition Va2, 2024
Oil, acrylic and watercolour on wooden panels
Edition of 21
20 x 20 cm each
£210 each
Composition 5A2a (The problematic interaction between the form, colour, and space), 2024
Oil and watercolour on wooden panel
90 x 90 cm
£2,600
Composition 5A1b (The organization, placement, or relationship of basic elements), 2024
Oil on canvas
27.3 x 22 cm
£420
By navigating the tension between the ephemeral and the enduring, Warm Rain and Thunder prompts us to consider how we engage with uncertainty. It suggests that meaning is not something to be captured and held, but rather something that emerges in the act of looking, feeling, and experiencing. In this way, Kim’s work invites us to embrace impermanence not as a loss, but as a vital part of perception and existence itself.
PAUL KIM
Born in 1994 in Chicago, Illinois, Paul Kim lives and works in Seoul. He studied Fine Art / 2D at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London, graduating in 2022.
Guided by an exploration of human cognition, materiality, and impermanence, Paul’s work emerges from a physically intensive process— carving grids into wooden panels, followed by burning, washing, and painting. This meditative ritual blends control and unpredictability, embodying the tension between order and chaos. Through his compositions, Kim captures the coexistence of nature and artifice, layering dynamic colours and geometric abstractions to convey spiritual conflict and the fleeting nature of existence.
His work, rooted in both contemplation and raw labour, invites viewers to reflect on balance, interconnectedness, and the transient quality of human experience.
Paul’s exhibitions include Serenity Amidst the Clamor at D+ Museum / ISM Art Space, Shenzhen (2024); In Search of Light at WWW SPACE 2, Seoul (2024); and Making and Breaking, and It Repeats at Gallery Dos, Seoul (2024). Other notable exhibitions include PAREIDOLIA at INSA Gallery, Seoul (2024); Galleries Art Fair 2024 at Art Park, COEX, Seoul; and the Westbund Art & Design Art Fair, ISM Art Space, Shanghai (2024).
