April 2–April 30, 2025
The Penn State Wilkes-Barre Friedman Art Gallery presents an exhibit called “Empty and Full: Series & Introduction to Self-Painted Korean Traditional Art Pieces” by artist Tae Hee Kim (Ajin) from April 2 through April 30, 2025. The exhibit features 43 of Ajin’s artworks.
Ajin was born in 1978 in Seoul, South Korea. She now lives and studies in State College while teaching an art course and pursuing a Ph.D. in Art Education at Penn State. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in fine art from Ewha Woman’s University in Korea. She also studied photography at New York University and Asian Art at Kyungwon University in South Korea. She has lived in Seoul, Morocco and the Washington, D.C. metro area.
Ajin’s artistic practice focuses on creating photographs, paintings, and installations that explore the philosophical theme of “Empty is Full; Full is Empty.” Her works integrate Korean traditional materials with Western techniques, embodying her central message: existence and emptiness are intrinsically interconnected. Emptiness, as she interprets it, is not a void but a space teeming with presence.
Her artwork includes several series: Empty and Full “Flower and Fish,” which visually merges empty and full images through the symbolism of flowers and color; Empty and Full “Mirror Series,” consisting of real photography retouched with Photoshop and expressing the visual coalition between reality (visible) and consciousness (invisible); and the Special Collection Minhwa Series, which delves into the tradition of Minhwa, a genre of folk art created by common people in Korea during the Joseon Dynasty (1392–1910). Minhwa encompasses traditional Korean paintings that depict the Korean people’s mythology, religion, and cultural mindset.