Liu Kim, born in 1995 in Seoul, South Korea, graduated from Ewha Womans University in Seoul with a double major in Ceramic Arts and Art History. She later completed a Master’s degree in Art Studies at the same university, before being selected as an International Deputy Vice-Chancellor’s Scholar for the MA Ceramics & Glass programme at the Royal College of Art in London.
 

Kim’s practice begins with an awareness of how, in contemporary society, objects with flaws are often easily regarded as worthless and overlooked. She brings elements such as tears, cracks and distortions, which have often been considered defects in ceramics, into the centre of her sculptural language. At the moment when elements once excluded from ceramics are transformed into the language of art, her work allows us to encounter the possibility of looking again at objects and the world from outside familiar standards of value.
 

Her work takes its starting point from traditional Korean ceramic forms such as the moon jar, jubyeong and maebyeong, yet it does not remain within the traditional sense of symmetry or the aesthetics centred on whiteness. Through the tension created by cracks, rough textures and the flow of glaze, she dismantles existing aesthetic standards and reconstructs the sculptural possibilities contained within traditional forms. This approach encourages a reconsideration of the value judgements embedded in the idea of “perfection” and expands the boundaries of that perception.
 

Kim’s ceramic works move beyond the category of industrial function and bring the essential qualities and materiality of clay to the forefront. In this process, tradition no longer functions as a fixed form, but as a field that is continuously interpreted and expanded. In her work, “imperfection” becomes not a defect, but a starting point for exploring new beauty and sculptural possibility.