Paul Kim

WARM RAIN AND THUNDER

05.04 - 10.05.2025

How do we experience the interplay of presence and dissolution? What happens when we encounter forms that seem to shift, resisting stability, lingering between the tangible and the transient? Warm Rain and Thunder is an exploration of this liminality— of moments suspended between stillness and movement, clarity and obscurity, perception and dissolution.​

​Paul Kim’s practice is rooted in the tension between control and surrender, precision and fluidity. His work resists fixity, embracing transformation as a central force. There is an inherent duality at play: elements emerge only to dissolve, surfaces appear solid yet waver and images fluctuate between recognition and ambiguity. This oscillation invites a heightened awareness of time’s impermanence and the instability of meaning itself.

Composition 4A1j, 2024, Oil on wooden panel, 80.3 x 65.1 cm

Composition 4A1g (limelight), 2024, Oil on wooden panel, 80.3 x 65.1 cm

  • Composition 4A1i (phase me), 2024

    Oil on wooden panel
    90.9 x 72.7 cm

  • Composition 4B3 (urgency to belong), 2024

    Oil and watercolour on wooden panel
    130.3 x 96 cm ​

Drawing from natural cycles and atmospheric phenomena, Warm Rain and Thunder considers the convergence of external and internal landscapes. The exhibition takes its name from a particular moment— a sensory imprint that is both intimate and universal, evocative yet ephemeral. Like the charged stillness before a storm or the dissolution of forms in the hazy mist of rainfall, Kim’s work thrives in the in-between, allowing contradictions to coexist.

For Kim, the notion of transformation is not limited to the natural world but extends to the psychological and emotional dimensions of human experience. The shifting states of matter— water evaporating, clouds forming, thunder rumbling— serve as metaphors for the impermanence of thoughts, memories, and emotions. Just as rain changes the texture of a surface, Kim’s work reveals how perception is altered by time, distance, and context. What initially appears concrete gradually unravels, leaving behind only traces of what was.

  • Composition 4B2 (in light it is lost), 2024

    Oil and watercolour on wooden panel
    130.3 x 96 cm​

  • Composition 4A1f (emending myself), 2024

    Oil, watercolour, and aluminium slats on wooden panel
    90.9 x 72.7 cm​

  • Composition 4B1 (in filth it is found), 2024

    Oil and watercolour on wooden panel
    130.3 x 96 cm

Through the motif of ‘light’— symbolising knowledge, spirituality, and the search for enlightenment— Kim’s works incorporate grid patterns as representations of human rationality and the infinite flow of time while also reflecting impermanence and interconnectedness. The interplay between light, colour, and geometric abstraction embodies spiritual conflict and transcendence, inviting contemplation of the subconscious’s potential and hope.

Central to this exploration is the idea of resonance: how moments, sensations, and images echo within us long after they have passed. Kim’s practice acknowledges that meaning is never static but continuously shaped by shifting perspectives. The exhibition does not impose a singular reading but instead constructs an open space where interpretation remains fluid. This refusal of fixity mirrors the nature of memory itself— always forming, dissolving, and reforming in response to new encounters.

  • Composition 5A2a (The problematic interaction between the form, colour, and space), 2024

    Oil and watercolour on wooden panel
    90 x 90 cm​

  • Composition 5A1b (The organization, placement, or relationship of basic elements), 2024

    Oil on canvas
    27.3 x 22 cm

Composition Va2, 2024
Oil, acrylic and watercolour on wooden panels 
Edition of 21
20 x 20 cm each

  • Composition 4B3c (Warm rain and thunder), 2025

    Oil on wooden panel
    90 x 40.1 cm

  • Composition 4B3a (Warm rain and thunder), 2025

    Oil on wooden panel
    80.3 x 65.1 cm

  • Composition 4B3b (Warm rain and thunder), 2025

    Oil on wooden panel
    90 x 40.1 cm

By navigating the tension between the ephemeral and the enduring, Warm Rain and Thunder prompts us to consider how we engage with uncertainty. It suggests that meaning is not something to be captured and held, but rather something that emerges in the act of looking, feeling, and experiencing. In this way, Kim’s work invites us to embrace impermanence not as a loss, but as a vital part of perception and existence itself.