Art Gallery Design Lighting for Kim Yong-Ik Exhibitions

Our art gallery design lighting team illuminated the KCC’s latest exhibition by Korean artist Kim Yong-ik. This art exhibition marked his first solo presentation in Europe. Spike Island, in Bristol, and the Korean Cultural Centre UK, in London, are the two venues for the first solo exhibitions in Europe. This exhibition is by the famous Korean artist Kim Yong-Ik. Kim has had a 40-year career as an artist, activist, and teacher.

Additionally, Kim Yong-it had a profound impact on modern Korean art history. Kim’s use of polka dots is perhaps his most recognisable work. In this exhibition,” the walls, canvases, and artworks all form one cohesive installation.

The exhibition layout was meticulously laid out and spaced to reflect this approach to contemporary art installation. Furthermore, Kim wanted the gallery lighting to be part of the art installation rather than an external factor to light the art on display. He did not favour conventional exhibition or museum gallery lighting.

Therefore, we started the process by setting up lighting mock-ups in the main exhibition gallery. These varied by offering different temperatures of light (warm, neutral, to cool), various intensities, wall-washing, and a tightly focused band of light running through and around the centre of the 3.2-meter walls. Yong-IK chose the latter as his preferred option. This meant 36-degree LED lamps at 5000K (cool white light) ran around the gallery walls. We utilised 147 light fittings in all to achieve the desired effect.

We delivered a lighting design solution with great accuracy because large areas of the wall had nothing displayed. With this in mind, it was the light that made the connections within the installation. Moreover, we installed 147 track lights, which had to be spaced the same with an identical tilt angle, which was extremely difficult to achieve. This was especially so in areas of the galleries where the lighting track was not present. Once the lighting fittings had been finely adjusted and focused, Yonk-IK remarked, “Wonderful, exactly how it should be.”

The exhibit, at the Korean Cultural Center, was opened by His Excellency Joonkook Hwang, the Korean Ambassador to the UK, and Janet Bradley, the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport. Many remarked to the director of the KCC and the curator how the lighting had improved over the last 12 months. Furthermore, numerous VIPs picked up on the methodology the lighting had been focused on in all the galleries, emphasising the artist’s philosophy of contemporary art. In addition, you can explore further details about this contemporaneous lighting design via Art Projects and Artistic Photographs.