Gana Art is pleased to present Rim Dong Sik: The Man Lifting up Moss, a solo exhibition of nature artist Rim Dongsik(b. 1945). Focusing on Rim’s paintings, the exhibition explores his diverse nature art, which has been developed in various forms such as performance, installation, and community art. After graduating from the Hongik University Department of Painting in 1974, Rim began outdoor performances while working as a founding member of the Korean Young Artists Association. Insistent on working in natural settings to express nature unfiltered, Rim continued to deal with nature in practical and concrete ways, such as establishing the artist collective Yatoo. In Germany, he confirmed Korean nature art’s potential, having moved there in 1981, and further developed his artistic vision at the University of Fine Arts of Hamburg (HFBK).

Returning to Korea in 1990, Rim settled in Wongol village in his hometown of Gongju, and continued to experiment with nature art and expand its range, as exemplified by his Art and Village project conducted in collaboration with local farmers. Encouraged to restart drawing by one of the residents, Woo Pyong-nam, in 1992, Rim began revisiting past moments of communion with nature by drawing his past performances. Reenacted as paintings, his previous works were summoned to the present through various adaptations. In this way, Rim overcame the temporal and spatial constraints of fleeting outdoor performances, completing his work through the continuous and repetitive process of painting. Since then, his paintings have moved toward conveying stories of nature more relevant to real life, focusing on subjects such as rural landscapes or silk, a product of agricultural culture. Rim received awards such as the Kunstpreis Altona (1985) in Germany, and the Park Soo Keun Art Award (2020) in Korea. His works are in the collection at leading art institutions in Korea, such as the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea; the Seoul Museum of Art; and the Arko Art Center.

- GanaArt