Hyunju Kim

Hyunju Kim is a Korean metal artist who reinterprets the historic art of mother-of-pearl inlay through contemporary vessel forms. By combining the shifting luminosity of shell with the strength and precision of metal, she creates surfaces animated by a living palette of colour. Her works respond continually to their surroundings, transforming with changing light, shadow and viewpoint.

With a deep respect for Korea’s craft heritage, Kim brings traditional techniques into a contemporary context. Her practice draws upon kkeuneumjil, a historic method in which mother-of-pearl is cut into fine strips and individually applied to a surface. Approaching this tradition through the exactitude of metalwork, she develops her compositions according to carefully calculated structures while completing every stage by hand.

Kim inlays strips of mother-of-pearl—some as fine as 0.1 mm—onto meticulously formed metal surfaces, building delicate mosaic-like patterns whose colours shift between blue, green, silver and violet. The finishing process is central to her practice. Each work is polished over many hours or days to produce a surface that is both luminous and tactile. In selected pieces, the interior remains exposed, revealing soldered joins that resemble soft stitches and make visible the labour of construction.

Through this meeting of seemingly rigid materials, Kim balances strength with delicacy and mathematical precision with optical fluidity. Her vessels appear to change as viewers move around them, allowing the natural iridescence of mother-of-pearl to become an active and continually shifting presence. Kim’s work is held in prominent public collections, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.