This week’s studio Sunday feature is Korean artist Minouk Lim. Lim is a multimedia artist who also produces works of documentary filmmaking. The artist often uses her practice to explore notions of oppression and changing identities under capitalist and governmental systems. 

Given that Lim tends to produce work in a variety of non-traditional media, it’s not surprising that her studio space doesn’t quite look like that of a traditional painter or sculptor. Lim’s studio appears almost sparse, in fact, though it does remind me a bit of the studio of Margaret Lee, another artist who combines her work with media disciplines (in Lee’s case, writing.)

Lim’s studio looks clean, calm, and collected. The only art-making implement really visible behind the artist in this shot is a series of paper cutters in varying sizes, from the smaller size that you might find in a classroom, to a larger industrial one. Below the table top, sheets of heavy cardstock in a variety of sizes are scattered haphazard on a shelf. One of Lim’s first well-known art projects involved filling empty bus shelter advertising spaces with custom-made imagery, and I can’t help but imagine that these are cast-offs or trimmings from a similar publicly-minded art project. 

Lim herself appears confident, almost ready to have a conversation with the viewer or waiting to be asked a pressing question. The artist’s attitude here seems to mirror that of much of her artwork -- aware and intelligently critical.

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