Kim Jahae, born in 1985, is a South Korean artist whose work interrogates the nature of the reality we inhabit. Her pieces have been recognized in both institutional and market contexts, and in 2021 her painting “Between the Curtains” achieved 4,923 USD at Korea Premier Auction. Beyond auction results, her practice is rooted in a sustained inquiry into the ever-changing nature of the world and how it can be perceived when every instant transforms it into something new.

Kim begins with the premise that we never truly remember the world as it is, because the world never appears the same from one moment to the next. Her work responds to this instability by juxtaposing elements that seem fixed with elements in constant flux. Buildings, machines, and industrial objects, which suggest permanence, are set against wood, water, and clouds, whose forms are continuously transformed. This contrast becomes the foundation of her practice, allowing the enduring and the ephemeral to coexist and inform one another.

Her paintings are constructed in layers, with each layer recording a specific moment while simultaneously opening a spatial field. These works do not function as mere surfaces but as thresholds, where time is experienced as a tangible presence. By multiplying perspectives and reflecting subtle temporal shifts, Kim creates compositions that destabilize perception and extend the sense of duration. In her hands, painting is both structure and experience, preserving fragments of reality while allowing them to unfold anew.

Through this layering process, familiar spaces are rendered unfamiliar, and conventional reality is questioned. Recognizable forms are transformed into territories of uncertainty, encouraging the viewer to engage with the present with renewed attention. Her works reveal the surrounding world as more complex, more mysterious, and more compelling than it initially appears. Boundaries between images suggest the provisional nature of perceived reality and highlight the impermanence of what is often taken for absolute.

Kim asserts that the world is not static but organic, constantly evolving. Understanding it requires flexibility and openness, a willingness to dismantle the artificial boundaries imposed by habit and convention. Her paintings function as thresholds, offering access to alternative perceptions of reality. They do not depict another world but invite the viewer to recognize the shifting, dynamic nature of the one we inhabit.

In this way, Kim Jahae’s work aligns with a broader exploration of perception and experience, where art does not merely represent reality but reframes it. By transforming time into spatial experience and turning the familiar into the unfamiliar, she creates environments that demand active engagement. Her paintings are not only visual compositions but immersive experiences, spaces in which the ever-changing nature of the world is revealed with clarity and intensity.