Minjae Kim
- Words Laura Rysman
- Photos William Jess Laird
The Korean artist carving out his place in the New York design scene.
“A chair can assume a personality,” says Minjae Kim, standing on a carpet of sawdust, a chain saw at his feet. Bits of wood fleck his dark button-down shirt, shorts and clogs, and there are stray shavings in his bun of black hair.
“You can connect with its character,” continues the Korean-born designer, explaining that for him, anthropomorphizing furniture is a process of “animating objects” and a response to an absence of personality in 20th-century design. “Modernism’s intention was to remove those characteristics in order to function anywhere, but that’s very aggressive. It’s time to mend that connection again.”
When we talk, Kim is in the midst of a four-week stay at Numeroventi, an artist residence and design gallery in a 16th-century palazzo in Florence.1 H...
