Duck Yong Kim (b. 1961) is an artist who modernizes traditional Korean aesthetics by working with materials such as wood, mother-of-pearl, rubbings, and traditional Korean painting techniques like Dancheong. His work explores the philosophical relationship between nature and humanity. His recent solo exhibitions include Live – Light and Grain (Gallery Now, Seoul, 2024), Yearning – Permeate through the Grain (POSCO Art Museum, Seoul, 2023), Ocean Rhapsody (SOLUNA Fine Art Gallery, Hong Kong, 2023), Auspicious Dreams (Leehwaik Gallery, Seoul, 2023), and Between Borrowed and Original Landscape (Youngeun Museum of Contemporary Art, Gwangju, Gyeonggido, 2022). Since 1992, Kim has held over 25 solo exhibitions and participated in numerous group shows. His works are part of the collections of the Kyunggi Province Art Museum, the National Museum of Contemporary Art, the Korea National Maritime Museum, the Pak Kyongni Toji Cultural Center, the Park Soo-keun Museum, the Seoul Museum of Art, the Korean Embassy in Switzerland, the Abu Dhabi Tourism and culture Authority, and POSCO. Kim graduated with a degree in painting from Seoul National University and holds a master’s degree in Oriental Painting from the same institution.

Obscura is a Seoul-based art gallery that first founded in 2015, then as SPACE IKKI, located in Seoungbuk-dong area. The name of the gallery derives from the Latin phrase camera obscura, meaning “dark room,” which refers to the first optical device used as a painting-aid, whereby an image is projected through a hole onto its opposite wall in a darkened room. ​Obscura aims to make contemporary art accessible to a wide range of audience and provide various artistic and cultural contexts for interdisciplinary efforts, by emphasizing performative elements of curatorial practice and exhibition making. With keen eyes on sophisticated work by artists with solid and idiosyncratic practice, Obscura has been supporting and promoting contemporary artists in the fields of painting, installation, photography and new media.