Kim Taegyun's *Ornament* collages Seoul and Pyongyang highway interchanges into one pattern. Six years between Stuttgart and Seoul; held by Seoul MoA and Busan MoCA.
From afar, Kim Taegyun's Ornament #3 looks like a tangle of plant tendrils or blood vessels.
Come closer and this ornament is entirely highway interchanges. Not one city's interchanges but a photo-collage overlaying interchanges collected from Seoul and Pyongyang onto one frame.
"The new ornamental form made as these roads meet and abut each other expresses an artistic reading of the geopolitical character of the Korean peninsula and a poetic metaphor for a new future."
The artist's note. Inside this vine-like image with no visible exit or entry, the two cities' roads point at one another and rotate together.
Six Years in Stuttgart
Kim Taegyun's record passes at length through Stuttgart, Germany.
- 2006 Kunstprojekt Vor Part, Birkenwaldstrasse, Stuttgart
- 2007 Foto Sommer, Kunstakademie exhibition hall, Stuttgart
- 2008 Testbild, Polizei building, Stuttgart
- 2009 Zart, curated by Jan Hoet, Galerie ABT ART, Stuttgart
- 2010 Die Natur verbindet, Villingen-Schwenningen city park
- 2011 No Limits, Wirtschaftshaus Stuttgart
- 2011 Shadow of Landscape, Ehingen Municipal Museum of Art, Germany — curated invitational (solo)
- 2012 60 Works for Baden-Württemberg, Singen Municipal Museum
Jan Hoet is the famed Belgian curator who led Documenta IX (Kassel, 1992). Being selected for his curated show signals that Kim Taegyun had established a place within the German-speaking contemporary-art scene. The Ehingen Municipal Museum invitational solo sits in the same context.
After Return: Seoul MoA and Kim Chong Yung Museum
In 2013, Kim Taegyun was selected for Seoul Museum of Art's Emerging Artists and held Eternal Vacation at Space Can. That year he also joined Events at MMCA Goyang Art Studio. Major group shows after:
- 2014 BETWEEN WAVES, Amorepacific Museum of Art APMAP, Osulloc Museum, Jeju
- 2015 Salon de SeMA, Seoul Museum of Art New Acquisitions
- 2016 Gyeonggi Promising Artists Saengsaeng Hwahwa: 14 Gazes, Aram Museum, Goyang
- 2017 Boundary 155, Seoul Museum of Art main building
- 2019 Busan Museum of Contemporary Art New Acquisitions Formula of Imagination
- 2019 Kim Chong Yung Museum Creation-Support solo Edited Territories
- 2022 Time of Buffer, Gyeonggi Cheonnyeon-gil Gallery
- 2023 "Observe Peace", Jeon Tae-il Memorial Hall Gallery
- 2025 Yesterday Is the Future of the Past, Songwon Art Center
That his work sits as new acquisitions at both SeMA and Busan Museum of Contemporary Art means he is already positioned inside key domestic public collections.
Ornament, Two Pairs
Two SAF 2026 works — both 2013.
- Ornament #3 — digital print · diasec, 100×100 cm
- Ornament #3-1 — digital print · diasec, 100×100 cm
Square 100×100 cm. Photo-collages of two cities' interchanges. Another note from the artist:
"The image of vehicles traveling their paths, with exits and entries invisible, seems to resemble the Korean peninsula's political relations where connection and communication look distant, and at the same time metaphorically expresses the invisible attempt to place each other's roads together to make a new road."
Overlaying interchanges of two cities closed to each other, unexpectedly, a new ornament arises. That is Ornament. A word meaning decoration paradoxically turns the geopolitical tension of Korea.
Where Roads Touch
84.9% of Korean artists are excluded from institutional finance. Sales of works by SAF-exhibiting artists cycle into a mutual-aid fund, returning as low-interest loans to fellow artists.
The message Ornament carries is clear. Even roads that cannot meet become a pattern when placed on the same surface. SAF's fund moves on similar principle. An artist and a collector unknown to each other, one artist and another artist unknown to each other, meet through one sale and one loan. Without direct intersection, they uphold one another inside the same structure.
Where a New Pattern Arises
If two cities cannot meet, they can at least meet on one photograph.
Kim Taegyun's practice is the visualization of that impossible meeting. SAF 2026 sits in a similar place. If artists and institutional finance cannot meet, they can at least meet on the structure of mutual aid. Like two cities becoming a pattern on one frame.
Works by Kim Taegyun
Related reading
If this piece helped, you may also enjoy these related articles:
- Preparing a Young Artist First Solo Show: A Six-Month Roadmap — A first solo show is a singular threshold in an artist's life. This guide synthesizes emerging artists' experiences into a six-month preparation roadmap.
- Four First-Time Collectors Share Their Stories — The moment of buying a first artwork is different for everyone. A first paycheck, a mother's birthday, a new home after divorce — four collectors who bought their first works through SAF tell their stories.
- Lee Yun-yop — A "Dispatched Artist," Carving the Texture of Labor in Multi-Color Woodblock — Lee Yun-yop, master of Korean multi-color woodblock. "Dispatched artist" activist, industrial rubber matting medium, farmer/worker motifs, MMCA collection — with 5 curated picks.
View all works by Kim Taegyun →
Related Reads
Artists on the Same Path
- 김호성 — Sticker-cher and the 24-Hour Unmanned Gallery: Kim Hoseong's Medium Experiments
- 안소현 — An Actor's Eye on the City: An Sohyeon's Authentic City
- 최재란 — Between Quarks and Kairos: Choe Jaeran's Suwon, Photographs of Time
Collecting Guides
Seed Art Festival
Published April 20, 2026
