Former North Lake College student Yikwon Peter Kim will be the guest artist at the college’s Fall 2014 Arts & Literary Festival which runs Oct. 13-16. Kim, an exhibit specialist and designer for the Richard Nixon Museum and Library in Southern California, said he’s returning because he would like to give back to the college that had opened its arms to him.
“There are no other artists like Yikwon Kim,” said Marty Ray, NLC art faculty. “He is one of a kind.” Kim’s expressive art isn't painted on a canvas or molded from clay. It is an installation created with numerous types of materials to express a feeling or convey a message.
While at North Lake for the festival, Kim will present a hands-on workshop, an hour-long talk and an Art Walk as part of his “Art is Me, Art is You” public art series, which he created in 1997. “The Art Walk is going to be exciting,” said Kathleen Stockmier, chairwoman of the Arts & Literary Festival. “The project [Art is Me, Art is You] consists of people decorating themselves as living pieces of art. Those who participate during our festival will wear their art and walk around the campus and the lake in a ‘live’ exhibit.”
Kim came to North Lake when he was 20. His first class was painting realism subjects, but then changed to abstract and pen paintings, and eventually moved to 2D and 3D work. Kim earned an associate’s degre in 1989. In 1991, he graduated from Southern Methodist University with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts and worked for a Korean newspaper until he joined the U.S. Army, where he served four years during the Gulf War. It was at this point in Kim’s life when he came into his own as an accomplished artist by creating an art exhibition on the military grounds at Fort Campbell, Ky.
Kim’s talk will be at 11 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 14, in the Student Life Center. His hands-on workshop will be from 9:30 a.m. to noon Oct. 15 in J-211, and the Art Walk will take place from 12:30-2:30 p.m. after the workshop. Later that day, a reception honoring Yikwon Kim will be be from 7:30-9:30 p.m. in the gallery.
