Exhibition Opening Reception and Lunch for Namdoo Kim—Underland: A Unique Lens on the Hidden Realities
Tuesday, February 11, 2025 at 12:00pm
College of East Asian Studies Gallery at Mansfield Freeman Center
Free and open to the public
An opening reception and celebratory luncheon for the exhibition by Namdoo Kim, Underland: A Unique Lens on the Hidden Realities, on display in the College of East Asian Studies Gallery at Mansfield Freeman Center through Saturday, May 24, 2025.
Namdoo Kim works within the tension of ceramics and glass to explore the dynamics of societal demands. While growing up in South Korea, the artist witnessed the consequential effects on families of an accelerated Western consumerism shaped by the country’s emerging economy. Kim explores these concerns about materialism’s impacts by melding together the radically different and yet complementary materials of ceramics and glass in his sculptures. Ceramics is a medium that cannot revert to its original state once fired. For the artist, it represents enduring values and societal permanence. Glass, which can transition into other forms once heated, symbolizes values that are transient, replaceable, and subject to change. Kim’s sculptures are evocative of small children or doll-like creatures. The objects suggest a sense of playfulness while simultaneously unveiling a critical eye towards the complexities of social pressures.
In conjunction with Kim’s solo exhibition in the gallery, his work will also be presented at Middletown’s Wesleyan Potters, where he was their 2024 artist in residence. Works will be on view from January 15 through February 9, 2025 with a reception on January 25, 2025 from 3pm to 5pm.
The exhibition was organized by Exhibitions Manager Rosemary Lennox and Associate Director of Visual Arts Benjamin Chaffee ’00. Exhibition support provided by the College of East Asian Studies.
Namdoo Kim was born and raised in South Korea. He completed his undergraduate degree in Fine Arts focusing on glass and ceramics at Hong-Ik University in Seoul, South Korea. Kim then travelled to the United States to earn his MFA degree at Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York in 2015. Kim completed his PhD within the Glass Workshop at the School of Art and Design, Australian National University in Canberra, Australia in 2023.
He has exhibited at the Burchfield Penney Art Center, the Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung in Germany, and the Cheongju International Craft Biennale in South Korea, among other notable venues. In 2023, he was recognized as one of the 33 contemporary artists selected by the Philadelphia Museum of Art for the exhibition The Shape of Time: Korean Art after 1989.
Visit the College of East Asian Studies Gallery website for more details.
GALLERY HOURS
Tuesday through Friday, Noon to 4pm
Closed March 11–24 for Wesleyan’s spring break.
College of East Asian Studies, Wesleyan University
Mansfield Freeman Center for East Asian Studies
343 Washington Terrace, Middletown CT 06457
860-685-2330
Image: Namdoo Kim, Bubble 241013, Bubble 241014, 2025, Ceramic and glass, 16 x 9 x 23 inches