Christine Kim is a Korean-Canadian paper artist whose practice explores themes of identity, transformation, and materiality. Working with cut paper, collage, and mixed media, she creates intricate works that shift with light and shadow, embodying both fragility and resilience. Her art draws from personal narratives and cultural histories, reflecting the layered nature of identity and memory.

Kim studied Fine Arts at Queen’s University, where she graduated with honours and was awarded the Margaret Craig Scholarship and Dean’s Honour List recognition. She went on to earn a Bachelor of Education at York University and a Master of Art Education at the University of Victoria, integrating her dedication to both teaching and artistic practice.

Her work has been exhibited internationally, with solo shows such as Lithikos and For all the shadows, dreams and formsat Galerie Youn in Montreal, and installations including Confessional for Toronto’s Gladstone Hotel as part of the Design Offsite Festival. She has also participated in numerous group exhibitions, from Paradigm Gallery in Philadelphia (Lucky 13, 2023) to Heron Arts in San Francisco (The Paper Show, 2022), and collaborative projects for Nuit Blanche in Toronto and Ottawa/Gatineau.

Beyond exhibitions, Kim’s artistry extends into publishing and design. In 2024, her cover for Tara Sidhoo Fraser’s When My Ghost Sings was shortlisted for the British Science Fiction Association Award for Best Artwork. She has also designed covers for E. Lily Yu’s Jewel Box and contributed to publications including The Collage Ideas Book and Alchemy: The Art and Craft of Illustration. Her work has been featured widely in Hi-Fructose, Colossal, Beautiful Bizarre, and The Sunday Times Style Magazine UK.

An active mentor and educator, Kim has led workshops and talks at the AGO, Nuit Blanche, and Aurora Cultural Centre. In 2024, she curated Textures of Time for the Toronto Outdoor Art Fair, continuing her role as both creator and collaborator.

In my work, I am drawn to areas of tension—the kind that exists in moments of silence before emotions find language. My figures emerge in fragments, revealing only parts of themselves. Suspended between layers, these figures exist in a precarious relationship with their surroundings, hovering between presence and absence, belonging and displacement. 

The interplay of light and shadow filtering through forests, the erosion of rock faces over time, and the ever-changing surface of water all inform the way I carve, perforate, and reconstruct paper. Much like the natural world, my compositions explore patterns of change, resilience, and transformation. Boundaries—both physical and psychological—are central to my practice. I often incorporate fences, forest canopies, and ornamental barriers to explore how space is defined and controlled. The layering of paper, with its perforations and cutouts, creates shifting relationships between figure and ground, obscuring and revealing in equal measure. The figures in my work cast shadows, shifting between presence and absence, as they navigate the delicate balance of vulnerability and strength, the intricacies of identity, and the shifting nature of boundaries.