“Reinventing The Wheel” September 5th-19th
Acclaimed underground artist Terry Kim will be hosting his fifth solo show, “Re-Inventing the Wheel” at the ARTery Gallery in Costa Mesa starting on September 5th. Both praised and criticized for his heavy use of pop/mainstream imagery in his hyper-stylized portrait and figurative paintings, Terry’s artwork has always blurred the line between the avante guarde and mainstream. With “Re-Inventing the Wheel,” Terry Kim looks to shatter that line with a dynamic new collection of paintings that seamlessly blends fashionable imagery with bold color fields and minimalist composition.
The centerpiece for “Re-Inventing the Wheel” however, will not be the artwork, but a spoken word set that will be performed at the opening reception and filmed for an upcoming documentary. The performance, aptly titled “Re-Inventing the Wheel,” will be a unique blend of stand up comedy, personal stories and a Q&A session that will give a unique insight into the mind of a talented young artist who envisions himself as a game changer.
Terry Kim was born and raised in Orange County. He began exhibiting his work publicly in 2005 and has since appeared in numerous shows in the Orange County and LA area. As a child he discovered he had a knack for painting and drawing, and although he never cared much for doing either activity, he did enjoy being better than other people at it. He took up painting at the age of 20 initially as a roundabout way to get into filmmaking. He taught himself how to paint by copying pictures from fashion magazines because it was cheaper than hiring models (and he was reading them anyway.) His initial plan was to learn to be a crack realist and then transition to more abstract/non-representational work, seeing as he doesn’t really like realistic artwork and loves abstract/non representational art (Joan Miro in particular.) However when he started exhibiting his paintings based on fashion ads however, his style really caught on. Hating this at first, Terry started seeing that his work was appealing to very wide variety of people: from the very artsy to folks who couldn‘t really care less about art. Terry became very intrigued with the potential of this style he created and began envisioning himself as an artist that could bridge the gap between the avante guarde and the mainstream public.
“Re-Inventing the Wheel” will be running from September 5th through the 19th at the ARTery Gallery at the Lab in Costa Mesa. The opening reception will be Saturday September 5th from 6pm to 10pm. The closing reception will be on Saturday September 19th from 6pm to 10pm and will include musical performances by Sam Oak, Ali Memarian, Beckie Joon, and That, That. The ARTery Gallery at the LAB Anti-Mall behind Urban Outfitters at 2930 Bristol St., Costa Mesa, CA 92626. For more information visit www.vertigo-go.com or email Terry at terry@vertigo-go.com.
