Title: Resonance of Contrasts
Date : 25. Sep. ~ 21. Oct., 2025
Opening : 25. Sep. Thu. 4 pm
Place : Artertain (Augustastrasse 31, 40477, Duesseldorf. Germany)
Curator : Heeseung Hwang (+82 (0)2-6160-8445)

Dusseldorf, 25 September, 2025
ARTERTAIN proudly presents its inaugural exhibition, “Resonanz der Gegensatze (Resonance of Contrasts)”. This two-person exhibition brings together Korean artist Jin Kim and German artist Roman Klonek to explore how contrasting cultural and aesthetic languages can converge into a shared resonance. The show embodies the idea that difference is not a division, but rather the condition for meaningful dialogue and creative expansion.

Jin Kim | Expanding Painting into the Mural Space
Korean artist Jin Kim, currently in residence at ARTERTAIN_G, participates in this landmark opening exhibition. His practice transforms everyday interior motifs into layered psychological landscapes, marked by a distinctive brush sensibility ? dots, lines, and spontaneous gestures ? that serve not merely as marks, but as mediators of memory, emotion, and light.

Over the past five years, Kim has developed a striking body of black-and-white paintings, stripping away color in order to investigate the essence of light and the materiality of memory. This experiment has been recognized as a significant contribution, presenting the introspective quality of Korean contemporary painting to the international stage.

For this exhibition, Kim expands his practice into a large-scale mural installation, turning the gallery itself into a laboratory for painterly experimentation. His gestures on the wall invoke tensions between inside and outside, memory and reality, while assigning new identity to the space. This approach resonates directly with Dusseldorf’s legacy of experimental and spatially engaged art since the post-war era, aligning his work with the city’s ongoing dialogue of radical artistic reinvention.
Kim’s participation is more than an individual achievement: it symbolizes a moment where Korean contemporary art asserts its voice in the global context of Dusseldorf, a city that remains a critical center for European art. His reflective and experimental approach stands as a promise for the future presence of Korean artists in Europe.

Roman Klonek | The Language of Woodcut and Humor
Roman Klonek, German-based and Polish-born, is widely recognized as a leading contemporary woodcut artist. His works combine the rigid linearity and structural strength of traditional woodcut with humorous and imaginative characters, creating a unique visual universe.
Deeply infused with Japanese cultural elements, his prints frequently reference imagery and language reminiscent of ukiyo-e. As a result, his work often appears to blur boundaries, sometimes resembling that of a Japanese or Asian artist. This paradox ? a Western artist employing Eastern idioms ? makes his art a fertile ground where East and West overlap.

Klonek’s practice thrives on tension between order and play, between destruction and creation. His characters radiate humor while embedding subtle satire and social critique. For this exhibition, Klonek was given complete freedom to shape his room, transforming it into an autonomous world that nonetheless engages in dialogue with Jin Kim’s mural environment.

Placed together, the works of Jin Kim and Roman Klonek demonstrate that while their origins are distinct, their art resonates with universal human sensibility. Their meeting embodies the exhibition’s central theme: that contrast, far from being conflict, becomes resonance.