SO YOUN KIM, FRSA freeman of the livery company is a cosmopolitan fine artist who is a cross-disciplinary thinker.
My journey began at the age of 14 when I moved to Canada with my sister, supported by my mother, a professor of textile design, and my father, an engineer and CEO of an IT company in Seoul. Growing up in a culturally rich environment, I was exposed from an early age to art, literature, and creative exploration through visits to exhibitions—including a Picasso exhibition in Seoul with my mother—beautifully illustrated literary classics, LEGO building, and participation in a literature club. This early cultural foundation shaped my cosmopolitan outlook.
My journey continued at Trinity College School in Port Hope, Canada, where I immersed myself in Western and Canadian culture while learning English and developing my artistic abilities. In Grade 11 AP Art, I earned the highest score of 5 through an independent study of Henri Matisse’s seated figures. This experience marked the beginning of my serious engagement with visual art.
I went on to study International Relations, earning an Honours BA from the University of Western Ontario and an MA from the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University in Ottawa. I later pursued doctoral studies at the Balsillie School of International Affairs at the University of Waterloo, achieving ABD (All But Dissertation) status. These academic experiences immersed me in the study of international norms, ideas, global governance, climate change, and public policymaking, all of which continue to shape my artistic thinking and practice.
After relocating to Ottawa to work as a policy advisor with the Government of Canada, I held my debut solo exhibition at Gallery Gora, a renowned gallery on Sherbrooke Street in Montreal, in 2022. Since then, I have exhibited internationally in Venice, London, Matera, Barcelona, Paris, and at the Tokyo International Art Fair. My work has also been presented at the Future of Humanity exhibition in Davos, Switzerland, during the World Economic Forum.
More recently, I became a member of the British Art Network and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA). Through the RSA, I have participated in the Augmented Society Network in Las Vegas, exhibited at RSA House in London, and became a represented artist at the New England Art Center in Boston’s SoWa Art + Design District. My work and interviews have been featured in publications including the Penn Journal of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania.
Beyond my artistic practice, I serve on the Board of Governors of Trinity College School and previously served as President of the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs Alumni Association. I am also a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Painters and Stainers and am awaiting the Freedom of the City of London in 2026.
My artistic approach is deeply cosmopolitan. I regard international affairs—my academic discipline—as fundamentally cultural affairs, reflecting the reality that in an age of globalization, nearly every issue we discuss has an international dimension. Building upon this perspective, I describe my artistic practice as an exploration of cosmopolitan affairs.
Raised in a trilingual environment—Korean, English, and French—I seek to express the sophistication and complexity of cosmopolitan affairs through visual forms that combine imagination with conceptual clarity. Rather than relying solely on the intuitive and improvisational traditions of abstract expressionist landscape painting, I strive to create works that articulate concrete expressions of global ideas through imaginative and descriptive visual language. My inspiration draws from the social sciences and from reading the great literary and philosophical classics, whose foundational concepts and theories continue to shape the global landscape in which we live today.
Here are what my collaborators say about my work:
