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"The Best Art In The World"
Hobong Kim, “Unfamiliar Space, Unfamiliar Time,” at Gala Art Center
By JONATHAN GOODMAN July 22, 2024
Hobong Kim, resolutely figurative in his treatment of New York City architecture and street scenes, paints from photos he takes and then reworks them. This is the basis of most of the work of his show “Unfamiliar Space, Unfamiliar Time.” Present in the paintings is Astro Boy, the hero of one of the most successful anime and manga cartoon projects created in Japan. Astro Boy is a stand-in for the artist; the character’s Asian origins, his assertive attitude and shock of black hair, establish the figure as an outsider, much as Kim himself might feel.
The paintings, of genuine sites, communicate New York City’s gritty aura and rough-and-tumble sense of place. In Others (2023), a bleached painting of what looks like a downtown plaza in New York City, two youthful men walk along an open street. They are followed by the Twitter logo. Ahead, a large Astro Boy leans against a tall streetlight. His red shoes are as big as the base of the light. In the background, the brick and window facades of stores, fronted by two trees and parked bicycles, gives a sense of accurate report. Something of the old New York survives in this painting. The site is drenched with sunlight; the resultant atmosphere is moving in its presentation of what looks like a historical New York.
In Others (2023), Kim paints the open doors and storefront of a store called Dickinson’s Antiques, whose yellow second storey is decorated by a large yellow model of a World War I airplane. An older man with a beard is found on the left; in the center, in the deep entrance to the store, is a large bicycle. On the right, Astro Boy sits on a table.
With their washed out colors, the paintings can appear old-fashioned. The artist is very interested in capturing the tough anarchy of New York, evident both in the rough buildings and the many kinds of people. At the same time, though, Kim is inserting himself, in the form of Astro Boy, into a complicated and intricate city scene. Thus Kim captures the spirit of the city.
Perhaps that is why Astro Boy, who acts both as a general symbol for Asian culture and as a particular stand-in for Kim himself, is present in all the paintings. By representing the artist, Asian culture in America, and a populist attitude that owes a lot to cartoons, Astro Boy becomes more than a historical persona from the comics. Kim’s American impressions and experiences have placed him and Asian artists in a hybrid cultural state.
In the 2024 work called Other, Kim has used a faded blue and white to portray a broad group of New Yorkers standing before Kim’s camera on an open street. To the left is the steel scaffolding we see so often in the city, while to the right we see, mostly in white, the buildings, people, and cars that belong to most city streets. Kim is especially good at reporting on the visual complexities that are so much a part of New York.
America has become a mosaic of backgrounds, not the least of which are the peoples from East Asia. Kim fits in unusually well. He does so by emphasizing his own identity, veiled a bit by his use of the Astro Boy persona.
In addition to the paintings, we come across a number of more improvisational works: drawings on cheap cardboard. In a work made in 2024, an open cardboard box, roughly 15 inches and 4 inches high, shows persons aimlessly walking. The drawing captures New York’s capacity for isolation. Kim’s sensitivity to urban alienation is clear.
Kim is very much a part of the Korean arts community in New York. But he has lived in the city for a long time, internalizing its various cultural influences. Kim shows an interest in differing groups of people. Astro Boy, a personal emblem and even a savior, comes from Japan, but Kim’s use of the figure occurs on his terms. His work offers proof of a psychic reality many Asian artists experience in America. The show’s consequences are impressive. WM
Jonathan Goodman is a writer in New York who has written for Artcritical, Artery and the Brooklyn Rail among other publications.
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