Signs of Passage: Nostalgia and New Beginnings

Los Angeles based artist Dave Young Kim is back in Humboldt County with a newly created body of work for his solo exhibition at the Cal Poly Humboldt Reese Bullen Gallery. Kim is a fine artist, born and raised in Los Angeles. He received a BFA in Studio Art from the University of California, Davis and an MFA in Studio Art from Mills College where he worked closely with renowned painter Hung Liu. 

His current body of work engages with the intangible quality of home and explores themes of nostalgia, war, conflict, and displacement. By interpolating cultural motifs into personal and larger histories of struggle, Kim explores the unifying search for belonging across disparate conditions. In 2020, he co-founded the Korean American Artist Collective (KAAC), a group of artists building community around work rooted in the Korean American experience. In 2021 he was a selected muralist for the Eureka Street Art Fest and in connection with the Eureka Chinatown Project to paint a mural, entitled Fowl, for the newly dedicated Charlie Moon Way area. (Located at Charlie Moon Way and E st Eureka near the backside of the Coast Central Credit Union)

This exhibition features light boxes, referencing storefront displays, with detailed portraits below. Kim states: ”My work plays with that idea of manufacturing nostalgia as integrated with my family history, memory, and identity. My artistic approach is drawn from a sense of loss or longing, looking for a place to belong.”

The exhibition Signs of Passage: Nostalgia and New Beginnings will run from November 8th through December 9th at the Reese Bullen Gallery. We will hold an Opening Reception with Kim on Thursday November 16th from 4:30pm-6pm at the Reese Bullen Gallery, with light refreshments. 

Artist Talk with Dave Young Kim - Friday November 17th, 10am-11:30am ArtB 102, as well as live on Zoom. To join the webinar follow this link: 

https://humboldtstate.zoom.us/j/88397320611

Here at the Reese Bullen Gallery he presents a new body of work based on the above thesis. More information at https://www.daveyoungkim.com/