Won Ju Lim

Won Ju Lim (born 1968) is a Korean American artist. She currently divides her time between Los Angeles, CA and Boston, MA. Lim received her B.S. from Woodbury University in 1992, and her M.F.A from Art Center College of Design in 1998. Lim's multi-media practice examines the dialogue between real and imaginary space as they relate to fantasy, memory and longing, as well as the various transformations that can occur in the connection between a space and its perception. She works with materials including foam-core modules, architectural maquettes, light installations and video projections. She uses Plexiglas to create three-dimensional miniaturist landscapes, resulting architectural forms, which are illuminated by image projectors from within. Her mixed media installations immerse the viewer in a world of colors, shadows and light, fantasy and nostalgia. Structures are used simultaneously as screens and light refractive lenses, creating shadows and distorting projections on the walls of the gallery. Works like Ruined Traces (2007), 24 Seconds of Silence (2008), Upside Down Huntington (2005), Upside Down Wilmington (2005), Elysian Field (2001) and Schliemann's Troy (2001) are all examples of such installations. Claudine Isé, lecturer at School of the Art Institute of Chicago, in one of her writings concerning art, futuristic building projects and concepts, has related Lim's Elysian Field to other artists like Dike Blair, Marco Brambilla, Sabine Hornig, Luisa Lambri, Sarah Morris, Deborah Stratman and Amy Wheeler. In addition to exhibiting in group and solo shows in the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia, Lim has been participated in the Munster Sculpture Biennial (2001), the Gwangju Biennale (2002), and the Incheon Women's Biennale (2007). In 2018, the San Jose Museum of Art will present California Dreamin''', a solo exhibition of her work. Since 2016, Lim has been an Assistant Professor and the Chair of Sculpture in Graduate Studies at Boston University. She is represented by Haines Gallery in San Francisco, CA; Patrick Painter Inc.