Shinae Kim

Shinae Kim is a Canadian painter of Korean descent, an OCAD University graduate (Honours BFA in Drawing and Painting with Distinction). She creates work that moves between figuration and abstraction. Her work investigates the sensuality of oil paint – and the life it depicts. She works alla prima in oil and her canvases are created by several layers of oil paint in a full colour palette. The complex, intricate balance of these colours is a significant component in her work. But her real gifts reveal themselves in the articulation of her imagination, its array of rich subjects – migration, family history, the sensation of deracination and of tragedy - the varied responses to the world and about the people who dwell in it.

Her awards are impressive. Shinae is the recipient of the Frances Lea Ziegler Memorial Scholarship (2021), the A. V. Isaacs Bursary (2021), the Andre Beaulieu Bursary for the Young Visual Artists (2022), the Toronto Outdoor Art Fair Career Launcher Award (2023), the Partial Gallery Career Launcher Award (2023), and the CBOE Canada Commissioning Artist Career Launcher Award (2024, 2025).

Shinae’s work has been showcased extensively across North America. Her notable exhibitions include a solo exhibition exploring themes of migration at the City of Toronto Assembly Hall Gallery (2024), a group exhibition commemorating the 60th anniversary of Korea-Canada diplomatic relations (2023), the Toronto Outdoor Art Fair (2023, 2024, 2025), Artist Project (2024), and 35+ group exhibitions.

www.shinae.ca.