What are your earliest memories of being interested in art or painting?
I can’t really recall when exactly I developed my interest in art and painting but I am the only one in my family who is involved in the creative arts. My family is more interested in the medical side of occupations, and so they are, generation by generation, doctors. I wasn’t really fully exposed to fine arts when I was growing up.
What is your background?
I was born in South Korea. My family emigrated to New Zealand in 1995, and I think it was in New Zealand that my mind was opened up to the arts although, I think I was always interested in drawing, playing with paints, things like that, from my early childhood.

Did you get any support at home?
My parents have always really supported me in every single way they could.
What about school?
There was some support, especially at High School. There was a teacher, he taught the sculpture class, Mr Moody, I’m amazed I still remember his name, he was like a mentor for me during my final year. He made me look at objects in a way. He introduced me to an artist called Christo. The artist was known as someone who designed site specific, large scale, environmental installations. He would use fabric to wrap buildings and landscapes. I found that very intriguing and it drew me towards abstract approaches to art.

Did you do further study in the arts?
I studied Fine Arts in Auckland University. The course focused on the theory behind painting during that degree. Not many of the students were working on actual art, creating new paintings. I then studied in New York after that. I went to New York Studio School. While I was there, it was full on about paintings, life drawings. It was a totally different experience compared to Auckland. There was one teacher, Bill Jensen, who was highly influential. I was so impressed by how he took his paintings very seriously. He taught me how to understand a painting. But also the importance of how you use paint, the colours, the pigments, the thickness of the paint, that was very interesting. Later I moved to Sydney, Australia and now I am back in Auckland, New Zealand.

If you would like to see more of Jee-Young Kim’s paintings you can click on the links below
www.quaygallery.co.nz/store/p3312/%27Next_Step%27_by_Jee-Young_Kim.html