About

Artist Statement

Kim Dooha is a contemporary artist working primarily with photography, based in Japan. Over a decade-long practice, the work has evolved through a singular methodology: projective non-retouching — projecting the self onto the subject while refusing to alter what is found.

From the tactile origins of Wool (2009), through the taxonomic reverence of Organic Produce (2012), the anonymous intimacy of Ordinary Girl (2014–15), and into the dissolution works of Bloom, Flowers Fall, and Another Self-Portrait (2018–), the trajectory traces a movement from deprivation to disappearance — from interior to exterior, from self to other, from solitude to multitude.

Positioned at the intersection of diaspora, materiality, and corporeal politics, Kim's practice interrogates what it means to look — and to be looked at — across cultures, genders, and states of being. A Korean artist working in Japan, the work carries an inherent double consciousness that resonates with contemporary discourses on identity, belonging, and displacement.

This is not photography as documentation. It is photography as a philosophical act — a quiet, persistent inquiry into the dignity of things as they are.

Biography

Kim Dooha (b. Korea) is a contemporary artist based in Osaka, Japan, working across photography, installation, and artist books.

With over 72 exhibitions and two published photobooks (Ordinary Girl Vol. 1 & 2), Kim's work engages with themes of diaspora, materiality, and disappearance. The practice spans intimate still life, non-retouched portraiture, and large-scale installation, unified by a commitment to encountering subjects without alteration.

Kim is the founding artist of Museum Dooha (Sakai, Osaka), an institution dedicated to contemporary photography and the intersection of art and technology.

Curriculum Vitae

72+ exhibitions (solo and group)

2 published photobooks

Works in archival pigment print, installation, and artist books

Download full CV (PDF)