Artist Conjures Worlds Where Nature Meets Fairy Tale Wonder

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Once she began feeling restricted by the confines of her studio, Mul Gil Kim hatched a rather ambitious plan: embarking upon a worldwide journey all by herself. Over the course of 673 days, the Korean artist traveled to 46 countries across five continents, producing more than 400 artworks that responded to daily reflections and discoveries made during her adventures. These pieces eventually came to encompass the Art Road project, cataloging moments of serenity, solitude, and rest.

Art Road and its sister series National Art Road mostly unfold across surreal landscapes, where prairies transform into vast, star-filled oceans; rainbows into monumental jump ropes; and bushes into trains snaking through a snowy forest. Above all, however, the series is a testament to Kim’s fascination with grass, which she repurposes to fulfill a variety of roles. In Spring Cat, for instance, grass becomes a curtain, pulled back by a girl in a blue dress to reveal a massive cat behind it. Spring Broom also reimagines a household item, showcasing a broom whose strands are composed of grass and whose handle is a tree branch. As the broom sweeps away snow, it leaves a flowering trail in its midst, offering a clear metaphor for how seasons gradually shift.

Other compositions are more ethereal, conjuring fantastical yet meditative worlds. Created last year in Nice, France, during the summer months, Blue Watermelon is a typical beach scene translated into the form of a watermelon, where its rind serves as a beach and its meat as an ocean. Swimming in Love plays with a similar theme, this time depicting a small, heart-shaped pond in the middle of an endless field. Equally enchanting is A Shining Home, which unveils a village whose cottages are entirely crafted out of grass.

“Most of my paintings begin with real places I’ve encountered during my travels, but I shift the scale, light, or atmosphere to convey something more intuitive and emotional,” Kim said in a recent interview. “I want to blur the line between memory and imagination, so the viewer can experience the piece not just as an image, but as a feeling.”

Indeed, much of Kim’s artwork resembles a fairy tale, in which the boundaries between reality and imagination constantly blur. Here, grass breathes and can be plunged into like water; trees glow and are to be circled like merry-go-rounds; and Northern Lights emerge from a deer’s head, replacing its antlers.

“Even something as simple as, ‘I’ve had a dream like this,’ or ‘This scene lingers with me somehow,’ can be a quiet beginning of connection,” Kim explains. “I believe those soft, personal moments are where art truly lives.”

To learn more about the artist, visit Mul Gil Kim’s website and follow her on Instagram.