30/06/2026
For the latest issue of ArtAsiaPacific Inside Burger Collection, Hamburger Bahnhof - Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart curator Anna-Catharina Gebbers investigates the self-portraits of London-based painter Sang Woo Kim 김상우 Sang Woo Kim (b. 1994 in Seoul). A graduate of Central Saint Martins, London, Kim has become known for his intimately-scaled paintings, installations, and pigment dye transfers, that treat human eyes not merely as instruments of perception, but of projection, objectification, and empowerment.
“The reclamation of my own image through the act of painting,” says Kim, “is also a kind of interrogation of the self in general. I want my work to challenge and unsettle viewers - like looking into a mirror and seeing themselves through the lens of another’s fractured gaze.”
Kim’s work is currently on view at AMA Venezia in Venice, as part of the group show Aura (through Nov 22), including Arthur Jaffa, Brandon Morris, Laura Owens, Charles Ray, Ed Ruscha, Jenny Saville, Tino Segels, Richard Serra, Christopher Wool, and Joseph Yeager.