It’s been a long, long ass time since I did anything on this site or produced anything artistically for that matter. I’ve been spending that time really thinking about my career and what I want to accomplish and I have decided that the path I was going on was not going to lead me anywhere I wanted to go. So I went back to the lab and decided to actually push myself (something I’ve never really done in the past) and unload the full repertoire. With that in mind I created the project The Full Repertoire.

I’m not quite ready to reveal what The Full Repertoire is yet, but just know this will be my magnum opus. It will utilize the full Terry Kim skill set. It will be unveiled starting September. Check back here for updates.

I recently discovered that LG made a video phone watch. When I saw that news I was like, “There is a God!” And then I saw the price. $1290. Yes there is a God and as usual, He hates me.

It won’t be out in the states for a while so there’s still time. Get it? I’m a funny dude.

Press Release for “Re-Inventing the Wheel”

From September 5th through the 19th acclaimed underground artist Terry Kim will hosting his fifth solo show, “Re-Inventing the Wheel” at the ARTery Gallery. Both praised and criticized for his heavy use of pop/mainstream imagery in his hyper stylized portrait and figurative paintings, Terry’s artwork has always blurred the lines between the avante guarde and mainstream. With “Re-Inventing the Wheel,” Terry Kim looks to shatter it with a dynamic new collection of paintings that seamlessly blend fashionable imagery with bold color fields and minimalist composition.

The centerpiece for “Re-Inventing the Wheel” however, will not be the artwork, but a spoken word set that will be performed at the opening reception on Saturday, September 5th and filmed for an upcoming documentary. The performance, aptly titled “Re-Inventing the Wheel,” will be a unique blend of stand up comedy, personal stories and a Q/A session that will give a unique insight into the mind of a talented young artist with pretty ridiculous ambitions.

Terry Kim was born and raised in Orange County. He began exhibiting his work publicly in 2005 and has since appeared in numerous shows in the Orange County and LA area. Growing up he always had a knack for painting and drawing, and although he never cared much for doing either activity, he did enjoy being better than other people at it. He took up painting at the age of 20, initially as a roundabout way to get into filmmaking and because he had nothing better to do. He taught himself how to paint by copying pictures from fashion magazines because it was cheaper than hiring models (and he was reading them anyway.) His initial plan was to learn to be a crack realist and then transition to more abstract/non-representational work, seeing as he doesn’t really like realistic artwork and loves abstract/non representational art (Joan Miro in particular.) However when he started exhibiting paintings of his early fashion picture copies however, his style really caught on. Hating this at first, Terry started seeing that his work was appealing to very wide number of people: from the very artsy to folks who couldn‘t really care less about art. Terry became very intrigued with the potential of this style he created and began envisioning himself as an artist that could bridge the gap between the avante guarde and the mainstream public.

“Re-Inventing the Wheel” will be running from September 5th through the 19th at the ARTery Gallery at the Lab in Costa Mesa. The opening reception will be Saturday September 5th from 6pm to 10pm. The closing reception will be on Saturday September 19th from 6pm to 10pm and will include musical performances by Sam Oak, Ali Memarian, and Beckie Joon. The ARTery Gallery at the LAB Anti-Mall behind Urban Outfitters at 2930 Bristol St., Costa Mesa, CA 92626

Who: Terry Kim and Jerusalem Crickets

What: An exhibition of paintings and multimedia pieces. And Food. Good food.

When: Sept 5th-19th

Where: The ARTery Gallery @ The LAB
2930 Bristol St, Costa Mesa, Ca
Located Behind Urban Outfitters

OPENING RECECPTION: September 5th 6-10 PM

Featuring a spoken word performance by Terry Kim and “Dessert of Disaster:” A collection of artfully crafted Hors D’oeuvres

CLOSING RECEPTION: September 19th 6-10 PM

Featuring Musical Performances by:

Sam Oak
Ali Memarian
Beckie Joon

Featuring DJing by:

DJ Delta
DJ Moni

I had a whole bunch of fun. This show had far and away the best crowd at any art show I have been involved in. It was more of a club/low level industry crowd which I have since decided is way more fun than the typical art show crowds. They are prettier, friendlier and generally have a much better appreciation for art. Or at least they are more cool about it. That’s not to say that art show crowds don’t appreciate art (because that’s not true at all) but I think at art shows, since everybody is into art or makes art, they always talk like they want to show that off. I don’t know how many times I get some goon step up to me at an art gallery with his arms folded and start grilling me all business-like about my work like it’s a fucking job interview or something. I hate that.

The babe-watch was very solid. Most were cool too. At least they were cool to me because I’m such a bad ass painter, right? Yeah…… anyways, I think in general I did a pretty good job at talking to people which is very hit and miss for me. I don’t think my networking skills were very good by anybody else’s standards, but I definitely think I’m improving in that regard. The audience was pretty soft here though, so I’m not sure if it’s something I should get too proud of myself about.

Of course since I’m Terry Kim, none of friends or anybody I invited showed up. It kind of bugged me, but I don‘t think I‘m going to dwell on it too much. I’ve pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I’m just not very well liked (and on top of that I straight up suck at inviting people to things) and while that’s pretty unfortunate, I don’t have the time to do anything about it. It would be nice though for somebody to see me when I do well though. My track record for having witnesses at triumphant moments is terrible. I can see why my friends would think I suck.

I think the reception of my work was pretty solid. I got a lot props and a lot of people came to me and said that my work was the best which is always nice to hear. It’s hard for me to say how hard I pwned since I don’t know how well the other artists did. Nobody I invited showed up, so that’s a big negative. On the positive side: I got a lot of people telling me I was the best, I got a lot cards, and people wanted to talk to me all night. Taking into account the fact that I don’t know how the other artists did, on a scale of 1 to 10 I think my pwnage was about a 7.

PWN LEVEL: 7

I’m a big Mingus fan. I did this painting for my show “Neapolitan,” but I never finished it due to time constraints. It’s a cool picture and it would make a cool painting, but honestly I can basically make “cool” paintings in my sleep now. If I’m not challenged by a painting I get pretty bored and not too inclined to finish it.

About like a week ago I posted this here and on my facebook asking people if they thought I should finish it or not. Now, I wasn’t expecting a torrential downfall of opinions, but I got two. TWO! That’s sad even for me. Epic riling-up-the-people fail. Well, maybe 3, but I don’t count Emil’s comment as being an opinion.

However, the two comments came from my friends Layke and Kim and since they are sweeter than than the candy Lamar Odom eats at halftime, I’ll finish it. Just for them.

Click here to read my Examiner review of the show “Allegedly” now at Grand Central Art Center in Santa Ana.

There are a lot of things I suck at, but apparently getting into shows is not one of them. I have a ton of shows coming up so right now more than ever it’s of the utmost importance that I get my FIERCE! on and jacked up to unreal levels. It’s gonna hot. I even hired a FIERCE!-ness coach. Check out the sidebar for more details.

This was a very early painting I did. I think it was my fourth painting. It was never my intent to be a realistic painter, but I always prescribed to the school of thought that every painter, no matter what style he/she eventually did, should have a solid foundation in realism. On the previous three or so paintings my skill at shading and color selection felt really…….. I don’t know. Erratic? Or inconsistant maybe is a better word. During some moments I felt I could get the shading looking the way I wanted and sometimes the ability would just leave me unexpectedly which was very, very frustrating. I decided to do this painting as sort of homework assignment to get down shading.

I took the image from like GQ or something. I selected it primarily because I thought it would be a challenge. It wasn’t. Whatever problems I was experiencing with shading in the past I guess worked itself out because I basically blew through it with very little trouble. I got pretty bored of painting it after a week or so which is why I never finished it. This began a streak of about four paintings that I left unfinished (I don’t know if it’s by coincidence or not, but these four paintings all have kind of a noir feel going for them.) Of those four this is the only painting that I didn’t destroy. Even though I never really had much of a desire to finish it, since it was so close to being done I felt it would be a shame to destroy it.

During my last show I showed a picture of this piece to a girl I met named Annie and she liked it and said that it looked good unfinished and that I should leave it as is and consider it done. It seemed like a good idea so I decided to fold it into my alphabet series.

I like this painting. It has a pretty good weight to it I think. One of my original goals as an artist was to create paintings with maximum style and maximum weight. Like a perfect storm of Alphonse Mucha and Diego Rivera. I think I overdid it on the stylization a bit and should have held back, but maybe that adds to its charm. It’s of Ingrid Bergman who is my favorite actress ever. It’s the second painting I’ve done of her.

Click here for my review for the show “Black Market Sugar” for the examiner.