More Than I Could Ask

Dawn Kim

March 9th, 2024 — April 28th, 2024, 2 — 6pm 
OPENING RECEPTION — Saturday, March 9th, 2024, 4 — 6pm 

The gallery hours for this exhibition are Monday through Friday, 2 PM — 6 PM. Admission is free.
To view the Media Release click here.

Press: ArtSeen, Brooklyn Rail, April 2024
Read the article here.

Penumbra Foundation is pleased to present, More than I could ask, Dawn Kim’s first solo exhibition in New York City. Sequestered in their everyday lives,  Kim’s subjects are encountered in their in-between moments at work and rest. 

Systems of belief, power, labor, and language are common themes that thread through all of Kim’s work. These photographs explore the visual language of portraiture across a broad range of people and places, employing different approaches in form, tone, and genre. Using her large format 4 x 5 inch field camera to make these images over the last three years, the artist writes about her process: 

I started by photographing people I know, but I found my companions too accommodating.  I think they tried to present themselves to my camera in the ways that they thought that I wanted. I turned to the vagaries of strangers to see what it looks like to closely observe another person unburdened with familiarity. 

I want to understand what portraiture can and cannot be. What’s the difference between a portrait and a picture of a person? Do portraits need to picture a person? How far back can I walk before a portrait becomes something else?

When I stop a person or group of people to ask if I can photograph them, they often want to know why. I could respond with something about the beauty of the light, or their gait across the street, their matching polos, their job that should be recorded, or the most accurate—that I’d like to try to describe the way I saw them. 

Portraiture holds a unique power to depict the inner tension between who one is and who they project to the world. The in-between of the setting up process and making of the portrait creates a state suspension in which the subject’s outward character begins to loosen. For Kim, good portraiture captures this subtle yet profound shift that occurs during the brief few minutes given in her encounters. She acknowledges that what she can ask for in that space is limited but that the endeavor of working in portraiture transcends where ordinary language fails.

About the artist
Dawn Kim (b.1989, S. Korea) is an artist who examines everyday complexities. Taking on forms of video, artist's books, and slideshow performance lectures, her work often uses text and image to make visible the systems that have been hidden, forgotten, or overlooked. She has been a fellow at MacDowell, Pioneer Works, ACRE and was the sole-recipient of the St. Elmo Arts Fellowship at the University of Texas in Austin in 2020-21. She will participate in the Brooklyn Darkroom Residency and The Villa Albertine research fellowship in Marfa, Texas. Kim received her BFA in advertising from Art Center College of Design and her MFA in photography from Yale School of Art. She lives and works in New York City with her dog Blueberry Willy.
dawnkim.com

More than I could ask was organized by Dawn Kim and Lisa di Donato. Programs Coordinator: Lisa di Donato. Documentation: Bruno Sorrentino Jansen. Framing: Laumont Photographics.

Ackknowledgements
Penumbra’s Project Gallery is generously supported in part by the Joy of Giving Something.

Penumbra Foundation’s programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. 

About the Project Gallery
The 300 square-foot Project Gallery offers emerging and mid-career artists a place to present new work. The exhibitions are developed in conjunction with Penumbra's editorial or educational programming. 

Contact: Lisa di Donato | lisa@penumbrafoundation.org