Biography
KIM Insook was born in Osaka, Japan, and relocated to Korea in 2003. She currently lives and works between Tokyo and Seoul.
Since 2001, her practice has been grounded in long-term, process-based engagement with communities.
Through sustained encounters with specific groups and individuals, she examines how relationships are formed, maintained, and transformed over time within everyday life—across memory, history, tradition, community, and family.
Rather than treating these relationships as subjects to be represented, KIM understands the ongoing processes of encounter and collaboration as the work itself. Her installations, composed of photography, video, sound, and objects, are conceived as spatial environments that invite viewers to inhabit and navigate these processes.
Constructed from fragments accumulated through continued presence and exchange, the installations unfold as layered experiences shaped by time, proximity, and shared situations. Relationship, in her work, functions not as a fixed theme but as a condition—one that is lived, negotiated, and continuously reconfigured.
Through this approach, KIM Insook’s practice opens spaces for recognition and attentiveness between people with different backgrounds, while gently unsettling established assumptions and categorical frameworks by foregrounding the temporal depth inherent in relationships.
She has held solo exhibitions including sweet hours (Gwangju Museum of Art, 2008), SAIESEO: between Two Koreas and Japan (Gallery ILLUM, Seoul, 2008), Between Breads and Noodles (BMW Photo Space, Busan, 2014), House to Home (Tokyo Arts and Space Hongo, Tokyo, 2021), and Eye to Eye, Side: C (Sony Imaging Gallery, Tokyo, 2024).
She has also participated in numerous group exhibitions internationally, including Go-Betweens: The World Seen through Children (Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2014), Family Report (Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, 2017), I Know Something About Love: Asian Contemporary Photography (Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, 2018), and Where My Words Belong (Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, 2024).
Her awards include the 1st Special Prize of the Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions 2023 Commission Project (Tokyo Photographic Art Museum), the 48th Kimura Ihei Photography Award (2024), and the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s Art Encouragement Prize for New Artists in Fine Arts (Type B, 2025).
Her works are held in public collections including the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea; Seoul Museum of Art; Gwangju Museum of Art; Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art; and Tokyo Photographic Art Museum.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2024
48th Kimura Ihei Photography Award Winning Work Exhibition – Eye to Eye, Side: C
Sony Imaging Gallery, Tokyo, JP
2023
Art Talk with KIM Insook – House to Home, 2023
Space 17717, Seoul, KR
2023
Between Breads and Noodles
GALLERY MoMo Ryogoku, Tokyo, JP
2021
Ari, A Letter from Seongbuk-dong
GALLERY MoMo Projects, Tokyo, JP
2021
House to Home (Open Site 6 Exhibition)
Tokyo Arts and Space Hongo, Tokyo, JP
2018
Between Breads and Noodles
BMW Photo Space, Busan, KR
2015
House to Home
CAN (Contemporary Art Network) Foundation, Old House, Seoul, KR
2014
Retelling Tales of the Cherry Blossoms
MIO Photo Award Prime, Tennoji MIO, Osaka, JP
2008
SAIESEO: between Two Koreas and Japan
Gallery ILLUM, Seoul, KR
2008
sweet hours
Gwangju Museum of Art, Gwangju, KR
2005
sweet hours
Art Space HUE, Seoul, KR
2004
Letter to You
STUDIO EARKA, Osaka, JP
Selected Group Exhibitions
2025
Art between Japan and Korea since 1945
Yokohama Museum of Art, Yokohama, JP
2025
Roppongi Crossing 2025: What Passes Is Time, We Are Eternal
Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, JP
2025
Knots Art Festival
Colégio Sant’Ana (Sant’Ana School), Shiga, JP
2025
Who Is Your Family?
Traveling Exhibition, KR
Jeju National University Museum
Kyungpook National University Museum
Gunsan National University Museum
2025
SeMA Nanji Residency Open Studio: Swing-by
Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA), Seoul, KR
2024
Where My Words Belong
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo, JP
2024
Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions 2024 –
Commission Project 2023 Special Award Winners Exhibition
Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Tokyo, JP
2023
Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions 2023 – Commission Project
Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Tokyo, JP
2015
Seoul Photo Festival – A Great Journey
Buk-Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, KR
2014
Haikou International Youth Experimental Arts Festival – Haikou Reflection
Hainan, CN
2014
Daegu Photo Biennale – Encounter III
Daegu, KR
2014
Korea8
Atelier am Eck, Düsseldorf, DE
2014
Five Views from Korea
Noorderlicht House of Photography, Groningen, NL
2013
12th Donggang International Photo Festival – Youth Collection
Yeongwol, KR
2013
MMCA Residency Changdong Community Project – Changdong Samgeori
National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, KR
2012
Hong Kong International Photo Festival –
Parallel Visions: Japan and Korea Contemporary Photography
Hong Kong Arts Centre, Wanchai, HK
2008
Art Court Frontier #6
ARTCOURT Gallery, Osaka, JP
2006
16th Festival Month of Photography FOTOFO 2006 –
Contemporary Korean Photography: Korea New Days
Bratislava, SK
2004
6th Sajin Bipyong (Photography Criticism) Award Winners Exhibition
Daelim Contemporary Art Museum, Seoul, KR
2003
The Month of Photography Tokyo 2003 – IN & OUT
Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography (now Tokyo Photographic Art Museum), Tokyo, JP
Awards
2025
75th Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s
Art Encouragement Prize for New Artists in Fine Arts (Type B), JP
2024
48th Kimura Ihei Photography Award, JP
2023
Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions 2023 –
Commission Project Special Award
Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Tokyo, JP
2014
Korean Artist Project (KAP) Selected Artist
The Korean Art Museum Association, Seoul, KR
2013
MIO Photo Award Prime
Selected by Kasahara Michiko, JP
2012
Daegu Photo Biennale – Photo Review Encounter ’12, Finalist, KR
2011
Seoul Photo Festival – Photo Review, Finalist, KR
2004
6th Sajin Bipyong (Photography Criticism) Award Prize, KR
2003
Konica Foto Premio, JP
Residency Programs
2025
SeMA Nanji Residency
Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA), Seoul, KR
2015–2014
MMCA Residency Goyang
National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, Goyang, KR
2014
Residency Studio by the Cultural Office of the City of Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf, DE
2013
MMCA Residency Changdong – Community Art Project
National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, KR
Publications
2024
Beyond the Door: Shiga and Art for You and Me
(Sant’Ana School ART Project with KIM Insook)
2021
Two Projects in Seongbuk-dong
2005
sweet hours
Public Collections
National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea
Seoul Museum of Art
Goeun Museum of Photography
Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art
Tokyo Photographic Art Museum
Gwangju Museum of Art
CAN (Contemporary Art Network) Foundation
Ha Jung-woong Collection, Gwangju Museum of Art
Full CV available upon request.