Art is my life and mission¡¦Kim Chang-il/Arario Gallery

By Shin Hae-in
The Korea Herald

With tremendous passion and drive, Arario Gallery owner Kim Chang-il is considered an "oddball" among conservative Korean art circles. Wearing a loose work shirt covered with paint and constantly roaring with hearty laughter, Kim does seem out of place in the posh and elegant art world.

"I have a duty to make a fertile land for our emerging artists," says Kim Chang-il.

The 55-year-old gallery owner, however, appears to be nonchalant about his reputation.

"Art is an instinct that drives me without me being aware of it. It is my life, my mission and my destiny," Kim said in an interview with The Korea Herald last week. "I have a duty to make a fertile land for our emerging artists and nothing else really matters to me." As the head of Arario Gallery in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, and also a working artist, Kim is internationally known for his lavish spending on Western contemporary art.

For the last 26 years, Kim has trawled Western art fairs, collecting over 3,500 pieces. After making headlines in many European newspapers, Kim was selected as one of the 100 most influential people in the international art world by German art magazine "Monopole."

Domestic art society also acknowledged Kim's power, placing him as the 12th most influential person in Korean contemporary art, according to a poll taken by monthly art magazine "Art Price."

Throughout his devoted art career since opening Cheonan Arario Gallery in 2002, Kim has set a precedent for commercial galleries in Korea, by exclusively taking emerging artists under Arario's wing.

In an effort to bolster young artists for international recognition, Arario has been providing its artists with the best possible working environment with sufficient monthly stipends for studios and materials.

Before Kim, Korean commercial galleries rarely represented young artists on an exclusive, contractual basis, nor provided long-term financial support.

"A real farmer must first raise a fertile farmland to reap good crops. But many galleries forget that they can never have a good harvest unless they first form the right environment for our emerging artists," said Kim. "Although many acknowledge the need for the birth of a star artist, there are few galleries in Korea that have been able to launch artists abroad."

Arario plans to exhibit works of its eight emerging artists, including Kwon O-sang and Lee Dong-wook, on a full-scale basis beginning this year.

"I have seen great improvement in the young artists and feel that the time is ripe to disclose the outcome of their efforts," he said. "After that, these artists will soon be competitive enough to enter the world stage."

Kim, who is also a chairman of a successful transport company and a multiplex department store in Cheonan, opened a second exhibition space in Beijing late last year, aiming to set up a solid hub in the Asian art world.

The creative businessman surprised art circles also by winning contracts with seven emerging Chinese artists.

With a far-reaching ambition to develop Korean contemporary art, Kim plans to stretch his art business even further.

An additional art museum called "Another Gallery" is set to open besides Cheonan Arario, and in June, the gallery's Jeju residential program will begin, giving its artists the chance to produce the best "crops" on the beautiful island.

Kim's next overseas destination is New York, the Mecca of modern art. After he feels that Korean artists are ready to meet the bigger world, Kim plans to open a giant exhibition space in the Big Apple.

Such grand-scale and costly business earned Kim some embarrassing nicknames such as a "vain art merchant," with the conservative art circles ruffled by this radical businessman who snatched up many talented young artists. A prominent art gallery owner once criticized Kim, saying, "Money isn't everything. One cannot 'buy' the insight for a good art piece."

"When did I ever take anything that belongs to someone else? And who says the gallery owns the artist with one solo exhibition?" Kim retorted. "It is only natural to provide artists the best working environment to have them under exclusive contracts. This is a world of competition where only fair competition can bring improvements."

Kim said that all the politics and talk among art circles made him avoid building a gallery in Seoul.

"With so many galleries clustered together in Seoul, galleries are unable to break the anachronistic boundaries centered only on profits," he said. "Korean art can never survive on the international stage unless the old habits are broken."

Majoring business in college, Kim never learned art in school. But starting his own art works in 2000, Kim is also widely known as working artist C.I. Kim.

After making headlines in many British newspapers in 2004 for purchasing British artist Damien Hirst's "Hymn" for $2 million, Kim was invited by the Union Projects Gallery in London where he held his second solo exhibition.

As an artist, Kim dubs himself "a dragonfly with dreams of chirruping like a cicada."

"Although dragonflies cannot chirrup, one can always be envious and have a dream, right? I think of myself as a dragonfly that wants to chirrup, in other words, do art," he said.

As a man of bottomless dreams, Kim said that the roles of an artist and a businessman made no difference.

"Art and business are the two main drives in my life that coexist as essentials to each other," he said. "If I had not known art, I couldn't have been so successful in business. This is why I have the duty to develop routes for Korean artists to enter the world stage."