Preface | Where We Breathe

Where We Breathe explores how space is constructed and perceived through the works of Kim Byung Joo and Na Hyung Min. Working with architectural and natural forms, the two artists reconfigure familiar landscapes through line, colour, layering, and spatial intervals. Their distinct visual languages offer complementary perspectives on how we encounter our surroundings.

Kim Byung Joo investigates the relationship between two and three dimensions by reducing architectural structures to linear frameworks. Elements resembling walls, windows, and staircases intersect and overlap, bringing multiple spatial perspectives into a single composition. Colour differentiates these structures while establishing a visual rhythm; the frameworks and their cast shadows introduce further layers of depth. As their appearance shifts with the viewer’s position and the lighting, the works reveal spatial perception as a relationship between viewpoint, form, and environment.

Na Hyung Min approaches landscape through the interplay of descriptive detail and pictorial arrangement. Mountains, trees, sky, and the sun are composed through distinct areas of colour and variations in texture. Dense foliage contrasts with open expanses of sky, while finely articulated forms establish a rhythm across the surface. The coexistence of suggested depth and flattened colour allows the landscape to be perceived both as a depicted place and as an arrangement of forms.

The dialogue between the two artists centres on the spaces generated by intervals and overlaps. Kim’s open structures admit surrounding light and background into the work, while Na organises pictorial space through the relationships between natural forms, colour, and scale. The distinction between sculptural relief and painting makes these approaches particularly visible. Presented together, the works invite consideration of how physical and represented spaces shape the act of looking.

Singapore provides a specific context for this exchange. In an urban environment where architecture and nature exist in close proximity, the structures and natural forms within the works resonate with the landscapes of everyday experience. The title Where We Breathe locates the body and the gaze within this encounter. Through the exhibition, Art ImA presents space as something continually formed through the relationships between artwork, environment, and viewer.