Exhibition Dates:
March 1 - April 19, 2024

Opening Reception:
Friday, March 1, 2024, 5:00-9:00pm

Artist Talk:
Saturday, March 2, 2024, 11:00am

Rivalry Projects is thrilled to present a solo exhibition of new works by New York-based artist Myeongsoo Kim (b. 1980, South Korea). Join us for an opening reception on First Friday, March 1, 2024 from 5:00-9:00pm. The artist will be present for the opening reception as well as a conversation about their work on Saturday, March 2, 2024 at 11:00am.

Drawing upon the perceptive phenomenon that renders the sun and moon the same distance from earth, Illusive Moon utilizes landscape photography – celestial and earthly – to consider ideas around physical and emotional distance, isolation, time, and memory. Kim uses a medium-format Fuji camera to capture images of the sun, moon, and vast landscapes, such as volcanoes in Iceland, the dusty earth of the American Southwest, or the urban expanse of New York City. These images are then incorporated into custom sculptural displays, made from hardwood, metal, graphite, and found objects, or, in other works, reformed as collages that collapse our understanding of place. 

Captured in the spring of 2023, when smoke from Canadian wildfires blanketed the northeastern United States in a dense, alien haze, Untitled Landscape with Sun, Bird and Three Dots, depicts a blood red sun on a gray horizon. While the sun is in sharp focus, the city is a blurred suggestion interrupted only by what appears to be a power line. The shift in focus probes our understanding of distance, which is further distorted by a tiny gold bird that rests on the surface of the image. 

Throughout the exhibition, and the many geographies present, Kim draws the viewer in close to ask - where are we, what do we see, and how do we see it? The works project a palpable stillness that creates space to question our relationship to place, time, illusion, and the emotions that this discovery evokes. Illusive Moon will coincide with the 2024 solar eclipse, during which Buffalo is on the path of totality.

WORKS

INSTALLATION VIEWS

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Myeongsoo Kim (born 1980, Korea) creates process-based works which explore the ineffable, expressive and material limits of images and objects as personal, reflective conduits. He holds a BFA in Sculpture and Extended Media from Virginia Commonwealth University and a MFA in Sculpture from Yale University. His work has been exhibited across the United States, including the BRIC Biennial at BRIC in Brooklyn, NY, in 2019, a solo show at CUE Foundation in 2020, a two person show at Below Grand in 2021, and a solo show at YEH art gallery at St. John's University in 2022. His most recent exhibition Land Marks, opened in November 2022 at Island Gallery in New York. Kim lives and works in New York, NY.