Toronto-based Korean-Canadian artist Christine Kim explores fragility and memory through delicate paper-cut portraits. Each hauntingly beautiful work blends pencil drawing and nature-inspired cut paper, creating fragmented images that capture fleeting moments.
Kim began her Cut Paper Portrait series as a way to move beyond purely traditional drawing into a more material-led practice. “This series began 10 years ago as an experiment in merging two mediums,” Kim tells My Modern Met. “After several years of working with paper, I became curious about the physical interaction between the blade and my own drawings.”
Paper is naturally fragile, and Kim embraces this quality to evoke the sense of vulnerability. We’re only able to see partial glimpses of each portrait, like an image that’s flickering in and out of memory. Faces and human forms are broken up by paper-cut leaves, vines, and other botanical forms, giving the works an organic, double-exposure effect.
“I have always been drawn to the dappled light of a forest canopy and the intricate silhouettes created by trees,” Kim tells us. “By translating those organic patterns of flowers, leaves, and branches, into the framework of a portrait, I wanted to recreate the effect of a face glimpsed through sunlight, where natural shadows stretch across the features to define the form.”
Kim is endlessly experimenting. She also creates collages and paper sculptures, revealing that she’s truly a master of the fragile material.
Check out the artist’s cut paper portraits below and find more of her stunning work by following Christine Kim on Instagram.
Toronto-based Korean-Canadian artist Christine Kim explores fragility and memory through delicate paper-cut portraits.
Faces are broken up by paper-cut leaves, vines, and other botanical forms, giving the works an organic, double-exposure effect.
Each subject appears as if they’re covered in dappled sunlight, with natural shadows stretching across their features.
The result is akin to double-exposure photography, except it’s all drawn and cut by hand.
The artist says, “I wanted to recreate the effect of a face glimpsed through sunlight, where natural shadows stretch across the features to define the form.”
Christine Kim: Website | Instagram | Behance
My Modern Met granted permission to feature photos by Christine Kim.
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