MiHee Kim Magee
MiHee Kim Magee is a painter based in London. Her painting involves the pursuit of spiritual aims through experimental, improvised processes that lead to uncertain outcomes, to challenge herself and the viewer.Her inspirations include free jazz and improvised music, which she connects with through her work as an album cover artist. She particularly enjoys working with Korean paper and inks because of the subtle, slow and delicate interactions that she sets up between the extraordinarily absorbent paper and the vivid inks, which never fail to bring surprises once they have dried. Patiently observing these slowly unfolding processes is a meditative experience for her, which she hopes to share with the viewer through the finished paintings. She also uses elements of collage to bring out a distinction between foreground and background, sharp and subtle, material and spiritual.
I am a London-based self-taught artist. I discovered my talent in painting early, when I was a child, and it was my dream to become a painter. But I felt too restricted by the requirement to follow certain rules of painting technique that were treated as more important than what was being expressed. This sense of disappointment made me give up painting and forget my talents for a while. I pursued other studies not related to art. While spending time in Australia, I discovered the completely different world of avant-garde and experimental music as a listener. This engagement with unusual music has continued ever since and has been a very big part of my life and my artistic development. Also, the open-minded idea of experimental composer John Cage that "everything we do is music" gave me fresh inspiration and helped me to understand music and art from a new perspective. I believe there are a lot more things an artist has to discover for themselves than they have to learn formally.
2019
Cover painting for the album 'Shards of the Infinite' by a free jazz group from London.
2020
My sculpture featured on the cover of an album on Cafe Oto's TakuRoku label in London.
2021
Cover painting for the album 'Live in the Metaverse' on 577 Records in New York
Cover painting for an experimental electronic album on USA label MuteAnt Sounds
Cover paintings for two experimental electronic albums on Florida label Poverty Electronics
NFT artwork exhibition CrypTOKYO at UltraSuperNew Gallery, Shibuya
Session III 2021 at Gallery Art Point, Ginza
Epilogue I 2021 at Gallery Art Point, Ginza
2022
Cover painting for the band Open Question featuring Daniel Carter on 577 Records in New York
I continue to work with New York jazz label 577 Records and other musicians as a cover artist, with more records coming later this year that will feature my cover paintings, including another by Daniel Carter and one featuring Eddie Prévost.
