Artospective: Paintings by Wanjin Gim from Seoul, Korea.

An Interview with Wanjin Gim.

Who and from where are you?

I am Wanjin Gim, I was born in 1981 in the Republic of Korea and am currently living in Seoul. I have been working as a nickname 'Willeys' and started sharing works with SNS from last year.

How you got into this?

I have been drawing since I was a child. After graduating from the Department of Animation at the Korea National University of Arts, I stopped the animation because I felt I did not fit in it. I have been working as a freelance filmmaker for several years and have painted what I wanted in a while. At that time, I did not work as vigorously as it is now, but it is clear that there was a desire for 'work that started from myself', not 'work done by others' in my mind. The longing has led me to the working environment now.

What is your driving force?

Until the beginning of last year I lived a stubborn life. I disregarded the advice of people around me to share my work with the SNS, and became an isolated island by insisting self-esteem. Looking back now, it was a worthless pride. In the beginning of last year, I began SNS due to a personal reason. I have shared my works over the next few months, and I was happy and excited about the people's reactions. The important thing is that I have become a person who influences others even if it is small. It changed my position from the days when I painted only for myself. As I grew up absorbing the inspiration of countless artists, it is my main mind now that I share my inspiration and talents with people and make the world a little bit better. I am still sharing my work with Instagram only, but am planning to open more diverse channels gradually.

What kind of work you do and why?

I usually paint nudes. Fascinated by Lucian Freud's paintings, I was mainly devoted to expressing the abstract curves of the human body and the infinite color of the surface of the flesh (I felt smells of flesh in his paintings). And then, in recent years, the idea has expanded to conceptual and meta-physical work. The point I consider about when I am planning my work is to express the spiritual dimension that exists beyond the surface of the skin. It is not physically perceptible, so it is interesting to be able to express freely. I am planning to study how to synthesize abstract and concept and continue my work.