Road of Life – A Journey Through Color, Femininity, and Emotion

Kim Bokyung Solo Exhibition, Gallery Knot (July 16–21, 2025)
By the Vily Magazine Editor

In the heart of Seoul this July, I stepped into a quiet yet vivid world created by artist Kim Bokyung, whose solo exhibition Road of Life filled the walls of Gallery Knot with a radiant palette and rich emotional depth. With a background in modern and postmodern visual culture, I’ve seen many emerging Korean artists explore femininity and identity—but few do it with the kind of intuitive elegance and symbolic honesty that Kim reveals in her work.

Each canvas felt like a chapter from a personal myth—intimate, surreal, and charged with motion. The artist’s use of organic forms—particularly winding limbs, tree roots, and soft silhouettes—evokes not only bodily emotion but also life’s entanglement with nature. One can feel her deep understanding of the female form as both subject and symbol: fluid, cyclical, vulnerable, and strong.

I’ve selected a few works from the exhibition that personally moved me the most. Though the show contained many more paintings, these spoke to me with their striking color language and metaphorical softness.

In the piece where a reclining female figure morphs into a glowing white tree, I saw not just transformation, but rebirth and rootedness. Another painting—bursting with geometric pastel faces—radiates a naive joy that contrasts delightfully with the more introspective works. Several canvases carry Kim’s signature round composition, framing figures in almost womb-like sanctuaries of stars, fruit, and birds. These visual containers feel maternal and protective, yet also playful and dreamlike.

The show’s title, Road of Life, feels fitting. Walking through the exhibition was like being invited into a series of inner landscapes—some blooming, some wounded, but all beautifully honest. Her visual storytelling transcends language: even without reading the captions, I felt her gentle confrontation with solitude, longing, and love.

This is art that doesn’t scream—it hums. It whispers through color. It lingers.

For those drawn to art that merges femininity, emotion, and nature with a surreal softness, Kim Bokyung is an artist worth following. Her voice is distinct. Her vision: undeniably alive.

For more information or artwork inquiries, you can contact the artist directly via Instagram: @123bokyung