Dr. Mina Kim’s research focuses on Korean art and visual culture; modern and contemporary art; Chinese/East Asian/Trans-Asian/global visual and material culture; ecology; design; popular culture; media; film; and visual communication.

She published the thematic book Contemporary Korean Art: New Directions since the 1960s (London: Reaktion Books; Chicago: Distributed by the University of Chicago Press, 2024).

Kim’s book examines a range of Korean art practices, including experimentation, performance, gender, identity, religion, and multimedia, from the mid-twentieth century to the early twenty-first century. It shows how Korean artists continue to communicate with people and convey the value of Korean art in today’s world.

Dr. Kim is currently working on two other book monographs, Contemporary Korean Art Beyond Korea: Transnational Communication and Global Visual Culture and Art for the Anthropocene: Ecological and Climate Communication in Korean Art. She is also the author of Jung Yeondoo’s Media Art: Quantum Deformation through Coincidence of the Real and the Virtual (2018). Her book chapter, “A Bridge Between Past and Present: Contemporary Korean Art and New Media,” appears in Prism K-Studies: Perspectives on Korean Traditional Arts and Culture. Recently, she published her article, “The Intersections of Buddhism and Contemporary Korean Visual Culture,” in Religions and a catalog essay, “Breathing with the Times: Park Seo-Bo’s Newspaper Ecritures,” at the invitation of White Cube, London, as part of the exhibition Park Seo-Bo: The Newspaper Ecritures, 2022-23. In addition, Dr. Kim published her articles “Achieving Modernity in the Art of Pan Tianshou” in Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, “Visualizing Buddhism Today: The Works of Jeong Hwa Choi, Kimsooja, and Do Ho Suh” in Religion and the Arts, “Reinscribing Tradition in Twentieth-century China: A Biographical Sketch of Pan Tianshou (1897-1971)” in Asian Culture and “Debating Wang Meng’s (1308-1385) Undated Handscroll: The Continuous Dialogue between Images and Texts in China” in Misulsahak yŏn’gu (Korean Journal of Art History). She also published three articles about the Chinese artist Pan Tianshou (1897-1971) in Orientations, Journal of Museum Studies, and American Journal of Chinese Studies.

Selected Publications

• “A Bridge Between Past and Present: Contemporary Korean Art and New Media.” In Prism K-Studies: Perspectives on Korean Traditional Arts and Culture (Eugene, Oregon: Wipf and Stock Publishers, forthcoming in 2026). (refereed)
• “The Intersections of Buddhism and Contemporary Korean Visual Culture.” Special Issue: Religious Conflict and Coexistence in Korea, Religions 16 (November 2025): 1337 (pp. 1-20). Religions 2025, 16(11), 1337. (refereed)
• Contemporary Korean Art: New Directions since the 1960s. (London: Reaktion Books; Chicago: Distributed by the University of Chicago Press, 2024) (refereed)
• “Breathing with the Times: Park Seo-Bo’s Newspaper Ecritures.” (London: White Cube, 2024)
• “Achieving Modernity in the Art of Pan Tianshou,” (Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art) 21. No. 103 (March 2024): 50-62.
• “Visualizing Buddhism Today: The Works of Jeong Hwa Choi, Kimsooja, and Do Ho Suh.” Religion and the Arts 27, no. 5 (December 2023): 613-644. (refereed)
• “Reinscribing Tradition in Twentieth-century China: A Biographical Sketch of Pan Tianshou (1897-1971).” Asian Culture 44 (December 2020): 25-45. (refereed)
• “Debating Wang Meng’s (1308-1385) Undated Handscroll: The Continuous Dialogue between Images and Texts in China.” Misulsahak yŏn’gu (Korean Journal of Art History) 305 (March 2020): 149-170. (refereed)
• Jung Yeondoo’s Media Art: Quantum Deformation through Coincidence of the Real and the Virtual. Seoul: Arts Council Korea Arko Art Center, 2018.
• “Across Time and Space: Historical Influence on Pan Tianshou (1897-1971),” Orientations 48, no. 4 (2017): 42-47.
• “Beyond Representation: Reinscribing Museum’s Collection of Chinese Painting in the Contested History: A Case Study of Pan Tianshou Memorial Museum,” Bakmulgwan hakbo (Journal of Museum Studies) 32 (June 2017): 105-128. (refereed)
• “The Embodiment of Time and Space: Political Expression of Pan Tianshou,” American Journal of Chinese Studies 24, no. 2 (October 2017): 141-152. (refereed)

Selected Presentations

• “Layering Empathy and Dimension: The Visual Narratives of Y. David Chung and Yeondoo Jung.” 115^th CAA (College Art Association of America) Annual Conference, New York, NY, February 2027.
• “Concreteness and Historicity: The Role of Abstraction in Early Twentieth-century Korean Art and Design.” Contesting Categories: East Asian Art in Transition and Transformation at the Turn of the Twentieth Century, Workshop, P.Y. and Kinmay W. Tang Center for East Asian Art, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, August 2026.
• “The Resistance for Women’s Rights Through Art: Pioneers Who Exposed Enforced Female Labor and Profit in Korea.” B/ordering the Global: Transnational Feminist Critiques from Asia: International Conference, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, South Korea, July 2026.
• “The Scalability of Kimsooja’s Art through the Coexistence of Local and Global Discourses.” 114^th CAA (College Art Association of America) Annual Conference, Chicago, IL, February 2026.
• “Remapping the Historical Trajectory of the Asian Diaspora: Diachronic and Macroscopic Perspective on Korean American Art.” 2025 Annual Conference of the Southwest Conference on Asian Studies (SWCAS), Texas A&M University-San Antonio, Virtual/San Antonio, Texas & Online, November 2025.
• “Beyond Visual Boundaries: Transnational Communication and Consilience in Korean American Visual Studies.” The 42nd International Visual Sociology Conference (IVSA 2025), Ajou University, Suwon, South Korea, June 2025.
• “A New Direction in Contemporary Korean Art since the 1960s.” The fifth Colloquium: The Future and Prospects of Korean Studies, Institute for Korean Studies at Soongsil University, Seoul, South Korea, June 2025.
• “Concreteness and Historicity: The Value and Role of Abstraction in Early Twentieth-Century Korean Art and Design.” 113th CAA (College Art Association of America) Annual Conference New York, NY, February 2025.
• “Contemporary Korean Art: New Directions since the 1960s.” Contemporary Korean Art Conference, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, November 2024.
• “Contemporary Korean Art: New Directions since the 1960s.” AHL Foundation, New York, NY, October 2024.
• “Transpacific Consilience in Korean American Art.” The Transpacific Intercultural Collaboration Symposium, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, May 2024.
• “Contemporary Korean Art: New Directions since the 1960s.” An Encounter with the Korean Avant-Garde Symposium, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, April 2024.
• “Visualizing Buddhism in Contemporary Korean Art: The Works of Jeong Hwa Choi, Kimsooja, and Do Ho Suh.” 112th CAA (College Art Association of America) Annual Conference, Chicago, IL, and online, February 2024.
• “Early Korean American Art: Identity, Discourse and Hybridity.” 52nd Annual SWCAS (Southwest Conference on Asian Studies) Conference, online, November 2023.
• “Engagement and Recreation: Memory and Documentation in Korean Contemporary Art.” The AAS-in-Asia 2023 Conference, Daegu, Korea, June 2023.
• “The Challenge of Authoritarian Government and the Urging of Popular Culture through the Medium of Art: A Study of Two Art Groups in the 1960s and 1970s.” Theorizing Global Authoritarianism: To Reclaim Critical Theory Against the Grain, Seoul, Korea, June 2023.
• “A Case Study of Changes and Expansion in Artistry through Residency Programs in Korean Contemporary Art.” The 9th Art History Symposium, Seoul, Korea, June 2023.
• Contemporaneity and Popularity in Today’s Korean Art.” International Symposium on Korean Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, November 2022.
• “Empathy and Connection: Visualizing Democratic Uprising, Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), and Inter-Korean Relations.” 110th CAA (College Art Association of America) Annual Conference, Chicago, IL, and online, March 2022
• “Reinterpreting Tradition in Modern and Contemporary Chinese and Korean Ink Painting.” International Academic Conference, Seoul National University, South Korea, December 2021.
• “Female Identity and Glocalization in Korea.” 50th Annual SWCAS (Southwest Conference on Asian Studies) Conference, online, October 2021.
• “Empathy and Connection: Visualizing Military Dictatorship, Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), and Inter-Korean Relations.” 2021 ECR Conference (Early Career Researchers and Graduate Students Conference), Edinburgh, UK, and online, September 2021.
• “Female Identity and Glocalization in Korea.” The 12th ICAS (International Convention of Asia Scholars), Kyoto, Japan, August 2021.
• “Empathy and Connection: Visualization of Traumatic War and Inter-Korean Relations.” AAS (The Association for Asian Studies) Annual Conference, Seattle, WA, March 2021.
• “Quantum Deformation of Reality: A New Perspective and Visualization of Traumatic Disasters in Contemporary Art.” The AAS-in-Asia 2020 Conference, Kobe, Japan, September 2020.
• “Debating Wang Meng’s (1308-1385) Undated Handscroll: The Continuous Dialogue between Images and Texts in China.” Art History Association of Korea Conference, Seoul, South Korea, June 2020.
• “Korean Artist, Jung Yeondoo: The Coexistence of Reality and Fantasy,” CAA (College Art Association of America) Annual Conference, Chicago, Ill., February 2020.
• “Creativity in Contemporary Art: Jung Yeondoo’s Quantum Deformation of Reality,” The AAS-in-Asia 2019 Conference, Bangkok, Thailand, July 2019.
• “Experimental Art in the 1960s and 1970s Korea,” AAS (The Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference), Denver, Colo., March 2019.
• “The Concealed Essence of the Phenomenon: Korean Experimental Art for Today,” MACAA (Mid-America College Art Association), Lincoln, Neb., October 2018.
• “Beyond Representation: Reinscribing Museum’s Collection of Chinese Painting in the Contested History,” International Council of Museums, South Korea, May 2017.
• “Past and Present: Exchange, Negotiation and Transformation in East Asia,” The Korean National University of Cultural Heritage, South Korea, May 2017.
• “Intersection of Religion with Modern Chinese Ink Painting,” University of Nebraska-Omaha, NE, April 2017
• “Cultural Nationalism and Modernity: Rediscovering Pan Tianshou in Twentieth-Century China,” University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Neb., April 2016.
• “Epitomizing Hybrid Subjectivity and Sociocultural Environment: Letter by Li Zhi of Bada Shanren (1626-1705),” The Mellon Chinese Object Study Conference at Smithsonian Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington D.C., November 2014.

Recent Grants, Fellowships, Honors, and Awards

• New Face 31 from World: Global Korean Power, Art In Culture, Seoul, South Korea, 2024
• Grant for Korean Art Publication Event 2024, Korean Art Management Service, Seoul, South Korea, 2023.
• 2023 KAMS (The Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and Korean Arts Management Service) Publishing Korean Art: Overseas Publication Support Program, Seoul, South Korea, 2023
• The New Foundation for Art History Publication Subvention Grants, New York, 2023
• Arts & Sciences Program for Intensive Research (ASPIRE) Award, The University of Alabama, 2022
• Fluid Mechanics for Elementary School Students via High-speed Flow Imaging Using Smartphones and Tablets, The Collaborative Arts Research Initiative, the College of Education, and the Office of Research and Economic Development, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, 2021-2022
• Certificate of Recognition for Contributions to Students Awards, UNL Parents Association, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2019
• Marilyn A. Papp Graduate Scholarship, Marilyn A. Papp Graduate Scholarship Trust, L. Roy Papp & Associates, Phoenix, Ariz., 2014-2016
• ASC Awards, The Ohio State University, Columbus, 2014-2015
• Graduate School’s Alumni Grants for Graduate Research and Scholarship (AGGRS), The Ohio State University, Columbus, 2014
• Chinese Object Study Workshop Grant, Smithsonian Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington DC & Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, August 2013
• The Versar Grant, The Ohio State University, Columbus, April 2013
• Pyne Grant, The Ohio State University, Columbus, April 2013
• Snow Grant, The Ohio State University, Columbus, January 2013, September 2012
• University Fellowship, The Ohio State University, Columbus, 2010-2011
• Research Grant, The Ohio State University, Columbus, September 2010
• James B. Angell Scholar, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, March 2008, March 2007
• University of Honors, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, December 2007, April 2007, December 2006, April 2006