Kim Jai Kwan

Kim Jai-Kwan was born in Cheongju in 1947. He received his BFA and MFA in Western Painting from Hongik University in 1970, and in 1996 he obtained his Ph.D. in Painting from the same university. For half a century, he has presented works of geometric abstract painting. Beginning with his first solo exhibition at Space Gallery, Seoul, in 1979, he has actively exhibited both in Korea and abroad, including Tokyo, L.A., and Seoul. In 1987, he was selected as the Korean representative for the São Paulo Biennale, and from 1988 to 1997 he continuously participated in the Ecole de Seoul exhibitions.

In 2008, he was featured in the special exhibition Korean Abstract Painting: 1956-2008 at the Seoul Museum of Art, establishing his position as a major artist. He received the Moonshin Art Award in 2013 and the Commendation of the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism in 2014. He held large-scale retrospectives at the Young-eun Museum of Contemporary Art in 2017 and Schema Art Museum in 2019. He was awarded the Special Prize of the Ha Chong-Hyun Art Award in 2019, held his 55-year retrospective at the Cheongju Museum of Art in 2021, and in 2023 received the Proud Museum Professional Award from the Korean Museum Association.

From 1980 to 2012, he served as a professor at the College of Art at Cheongju University, dedicating himself to fostering younger generations in Korea. After completing 30 years of teaching, in June 2009 he founded Shema Art Museum, the first private museum in North Chungcheong Province, in his hometown Cheongju, to realize the necessity of artistic communication. Up to the present, he has continued to participate in solo and major group exhibitions at galleries and museums in Korea and abroad, remaining at the center of geometric abstract art for more than half a century.