In Conversation with Minku Kim
On Painting, Nature,
Scent, and Summer Forest
Image courtesy of Minku Kim Studio
Minku Kim is a Seoul-born, New York–based artist whose paintings move between architecture, landscape, and abstraction. Working in oil and acrylic, he develops his paintings slowly over months and sometimes years, balancing structure with intuition.
What began with studio visits and shared experiments gradually evolved into Summer Forest through months of conversation, curiosity, and collaboration.
This conversation reflects on painting, nature, time, and the unexpected dialogue between art and scent.
PAINTING
Nayun: How has your relationship with painting changed over the years?
Minku: When I first began painting more seriously in high school around 2007, I was interested in accurately reproducing what I saw. I made a series of photorealistic paintings of New York City nightscapes and my high school neighborhood, based on photographs I had taken. Being able to depict reality almost like a camera brought me recognition and a sense of accomplishment.
Over time, I became interested in developing a recognizable visual language—something people might immediately associate with my work. Through vigorous experimentation during graduate school, I began to find that language, and this was when my Straight Edge Painting series began to take shape.
S.E.P. (Central Park View No. III), 2023-2026
Oil, acrylic on canvas, 84 x 60 inches (213.4 x 152.4 cm)
Image courtesy of Minku Kim Studio
More recently, I have found myself returning to photography and to a more three-dimensional way of looking at nature and everyday life. My TREES series, for example, is based on photographs I have taken of trees throughout New York City.
Today, I trust my brushwork and intuition more. I feel less self-conscious about what others may think of my work and more comfortable allowing a painting to find its own direction.
Painting feels less like demonstrating what I know and more like quietly, but confidently, sailing into deeper and less familiar waters.
Nayun: Your paintings often place precise geometric structures beside fluid, organic forms. How do these different visual elements come together in your work?
Minku: I have always been interested in both architecture and nature, particularly in the visual and psychological tension between them.
The Alps, 2024-2026
Oil, acrylic on wood panel. 10 x 6 inches (25.4 x 15.2 cm)
Image courtesy of Minku Kim Studio
Straight lines and hard edges are fundamental to architecture, while in nature, perfectly straight lines are almost impossible to find. I find that contrast fascinating: we live between something highly constructed and something seemingly irregular, unpredictable, and organic.
Having grown up in metropolitan cities such as Seoul and New York, straight lines, grids, windows, and architectural edges feel just as familiar and natural to me as trees and organic forms. My paintings often bring these two languages together.
I have also always been drawn to musicality and figurative abstraction. The juxtaposition of fluid lines and hard edges creates an inherent tension, rhythm, and visual energy. I believe this is one reason I have long been psychologically and visually attracted to the paintings of Francis Bacon.
VALUES
Nayun: What values continue to guide both your life and your work?
Minku: Diligence, curiosity, and gratitude continue to guide both my life and my work.
Making art is also a way of discovering my inner spirit. Rather than focusing only on creating a perfectly balanced painting, I have learned to value the daily process of revision, experimentation, and discovery. Painting feels less like a profession than a lifelong calling—something I hope to continue developing for as long as I am able.
S.E.P. (Blue Window), 2019-2026
Oil, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 48 inches (152.4 x 121.9 cm)
Image courtesy of Minku Kim Studio
I have many artistic heroes and teachers whose work I continue to study and learn from, while experimenting with those influences on my own terms. Even as my own work becomes more recognizable, I hope to retain the mindset of a student and enter the studio with the same sense of wonder and excitement I feel today.
I remain deeply grateful to the people who have believed in me throughout this journey. More than a decade of supporting myself through my work has taught me that discipline, sincerity, and a clear vision become lifelong companions.
Three words have recently stayed with me: Classic, Nature, and Fortune. “Classic” reflects my hope to create work that remains meaningful beyond a particular moment. “Nature” reminds me of constant change, rhythm, and humility. “Fortune” reminds me to remain grateful for the unexpected opportunities that can emerge when sustained effort is met with trust and faith.
NATURE
Nayun: Nature appears throughout your work. What continues to draw you back to forests and natural landscapes?
Minku: My connection to nature began in childhood, when I lived in a house with a small garden filled with trees, flowers, vegetables, and many kinds of plants. One of my favorite activities was watering everything with a long garden hose. At the time, I simply believed that if I continued to care for them, they would remain alive and gradually grow stronger.
Even today, I find comfort in these repetitive acts of care. Watering plants, cleaning their leaves, pruning branches, and turning them toward the light can feel meditative. Caring for plants has become part of my studio ritual.
The Museum Road, 2025
Oil, acrylic on canvas, 40 x 30 inches (101.6 x 76.2 cm)
Image courtesy of Minku Kim Studio
Forests also embody many of the qualities I value in painting: complexity, rhythm, silence, changing light, and the coexistence of order and unpredictability. A forest is never completely still, even when it appears quiet.
While developing my TREES series, I found myself looking more closely at artists who approached nature with humility. I became deeply moved by Van Gogh’s sincerity, while also drawing inspiration from Ellsworth Kelly and Henri Matisse and their explorations of interior and exterior space, plants, color, and abstraction.
The plants in my studio have also become a kind of living sculpture. As they grow and change over time, they continue to influence the way I see and make my work.
TIME
Nayun: Your work seems to value patience over immediacy. Why is giving time to a painting so important?
Minku: Time allows a painting to reveal what it actually needs and wants.
My work develops through repeated observation, adjustment, removal, and rebuilding. A decision that feels convincing one day may feel incomplete when I return to it under different light or with a quieter mind.
Giving a painting time also creates distance between my original intention and what the work gradually becomes on its own.
S.E.P. (Dreamscape), 2022-2026
Oil on canvas in artist frame, 48 x 36 inches (121.9 x 91.4 cm)
Image courtesy of Minku Kim Studio
Rather than forcing a painting to follow a predetermined plan, I try to listen to it and allow a conversation to develop between us.
Nayun: What makes a painting stay with us long after we’ve seen it?
Minku: I believe a painting stays with us when it offers more than an immediate visual impression. It may contain a particular color, gesture, atmosphere, or emotional tension that continues to unfold in memory.
The paintings that remain with me rarely explain everything at once. They leave space for uncertainty and for the viewer’s own experiences to enter. A work can feel familiar and mysterious at the same time.
Technical skill may initially attract our attention, but sincerity is what gives a painting lasting presence. A memorable painting does not need to be loud. Sometimes it stays with us precisely because it is quiet, inviting us to slow down and return to it.
STUDIO
Nayun: Can you tell us about your daily rhythm in the studio?
Minku: My days in the studio are generally quiet and focused. Looking at the paintings, caring for the plants, and observing the changing light are all part of my daily rhythm, although each day brings different discoveries.
Image courtesy of Minku Kim Studio
I usually begin by simply looking. Before making any decisions, I observe how the light enters the space and how the paintings feel compared with the previous day. Sometimes I begin painting immediately; other times, I spend a long period rearranging works, preparing materials, or simply considering what should happen next.
Over the past few years, silence has become increasingly important in my studio. It allows me to give the work my full attention and notice subtle changes that might otherwise be overlooked.
From the outside, studio life may appear solitary and repetitive. Internally, however, it is full of constant movement—adjusting colors, relationships, surfaces, and ideas.
SCENT
Nayun: What was your first impression when you experienced Summer Forest?
Minku: I first experienced Summer Forest in Chelsea, Manhattan. The moment I smelled it, I felt as though I had briefly been transported to a forest in upstate New York.
Although I was standing in the middle of the city, I imagined clear air, a quiet woodland path, and sunlight filtering through the trees. The scent felt both refreshing and calming, offering a brief sense of clarity and restoration.
What fascinated me most was how quickly scent could transform my perception of place.
Without physically moving, I felt that I had entered another landscape.
PAINTING THROUGH SCENT
Nayun: After experiencing the three scents, you created a series of paintings inspired by them. What was that process like?
Minku: Over several weeks, I created a series of small paintings in response to three scents prepared by Rasayan.
Translating scent into painting was a completely new experience. Because scent is invisible, I paid close attention to the emotions, sensations, colors, and images that surfaced while experiencing each one.
Interestingly, I initially intended to create only three paintings—one in response to each scent. But I soon realized that as each scent developed on the blotter over thirty to sixty minutes, it gave me a noticeably different impression. I became interested in capturing both the initial encounter and the later, more developed experience of each scent. As a result, I created two paintings for each scent, for a total of six works.
Image courtesy of Minku Kim Studio
Rather than illustrating the ingredients themselves, I wanted the paintings to respond to the atmosphere and my own interpretation of each scent. I returned to the scents repeatedly while adjusting colors, forms, and surfaces, discovering new qualities each time.
BOTANICA
Nayun: What was it like to create Botanica together?
Minku: Creating Botanica together was both unexpected and deeply rewarding.
During one of our meetings, I was invited to experiment directly with scent materials. I approached the process intuitively, imagining the kind of scent I would genuinely want to wear—something grounding, natural, and connected to the atmosphere of my studio.
What surprised me most was how closely composing a scent can resemble painting. In painting, I constantly adjust the relationships between colors, forms, textures, and empty spaces. With scent, even the smallest change in proportion can completely transform the balance of the whole.
Our first blending session felt less like reaching a final destination and more like opening a new conversation. I hope Botanica continues to evolve through experimentation and dialogue, reflecting not only a single moment of inspiration but an ongoing process of looking, smelling, questioning, and refining together.
SUMMER FOREST
Nayun: What do you hope visitors experience as they move through Summer Forest?
Minku: I hope visitors allow themselves to slow down and experience the project without feeling the need to understand everything immediately.
The paintings, scents, plants, natural light, and studio environment are intended to create interconnected layers of experience. I hope people move freely between them, noticing how one sense begins to influence another—how a scent changes the way a color feels, or how a painting reshapes the landscape imagined while experiencing a scent.
Image courtesy of Minku Kim Studio
I do not expect everyone to have the same response. Scent is deeply connected to personal memory, experience, and background, just as a painting invites each viewer to bring their own experiences into the work.
More than anything, I hope visitors leave with a quiet sense of inspiration and restoration. Even within the city, perhaps Summer Forest can offer a brief moment of openness, discovery, and reconnection with the natural world.
