SongMi Kim

SongMi Kim (*1972, Busan, South Korea) lives and works in Prague. From 1992 to 1998 she studied sculpture at Sungshin Women's University in Seoul (MgrA., prof. Jeong Kwan-Mo). After moving to the Czech Republic she continued her studies of glass at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague in the studio of prof. Vladimír Kopecký (2005–2007) and subsequently at the Secondary School of Applied Arts for Glassmaking in Valašské Meziříčí (2007–2011). She has also worked in teaching – as an assistant at Sungshin University in Seoul and later as an assistant in the glass studio at Tomáš Baťa University in Zlín (2017–2018, prof. Petr Stanický).

The theme she returns to in her work is the position of women in society: already her first solo exhibition in Seoul (In Sex and Castle, 1997) reflected the significant gender inequality in the Korean society of the time, and the cycle Koko, koko… KOKODÁK! (2019), first presented in a comprehensive form at Galerie Kuzebauch, builds on this theme. She is the laureate of several awards, including 1st prize in the Craftsmanship and Art in Glass competition (Nový Bor, 2006), the Prize of the Czech Glass Society (Kamenický Šenov, 2008) and the RONA Glassworks Prize within the Nova Gallery Prize (Bratislava, 2011). Her works are represented in public collections in the Czech Republic and abroad (e.g. the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague, the glass museums in Nový Bor and Kamenický Šenov, the Museum of Glass and Jewellery in Jablonec nad Nisou and the Kunstsammlungen der Veste Coburg).