A retrospective exhibition by ceramic artist Youngshin Kim is set to open next month on Sunday, the 15th, at the Muckenthaler Cultural Center (1201 W. Malvern Ave) in Fullerton.
Running through January 8 of next year, the retrospective celebrates and commemorates the artist’s receipt of the James Young Art Legacy Award. The Muckenthaler Cultural Center Foundation, which annually presents this award to individuals who have contributed to the development of community arts, selected Kim as the 2026 recipient earlier this year.
Having been actively engaged in art exhibitions through solo and group shows in the United States and South Korea for the past 30 years, Kim has been teaching ceramics at the Muckenthaler Cultural Center in Fullerton for 20 years.
The award ceremony will take place during the opening reception at 5 PM on the 15th of next month.
Under the theme ‘Creation and Connection,’ Kim will showcase works that capture the restrained beauty, harmony, balance, and subtle strength of Korean ceramics, alongside the freedom discovered in American contemporary ceramics.
Kim stated, ‘In recent years, I have developed a deeper interest in the most essential purpose of a vessel: containment. Vessels can hold memories, culture, longing, and human experience. Beginning from the earth and transformed through our hands and fire, clay is both the material and the language of my life.’ She further explained, ‘For me, the transformation of clay has always been about connection. The connection between past and present, Korea and America, tradition and change, and ultimately between the artist and the viewer, is the theme of this exhibition.’
Kim completed her master’s degree in ceramics at California State University, Fullerton in 1990. She was selected for the Gyeonggi World Ceramic Biennale in 2003 and has held numerous solo and group exhibitions, including a 2013 exhibition at the American Museum of Ceramic Art (AMOCA) in Pomona alongside five master ceramicists from Icheon.
She has been teaching ceramic classes at the Muckenthaler Cultural Center since 2006 and has held four international exchange exhibitions of Buncheong ware in South Korea and the United States alongside master ceramicist Soon-kwan Ma of Yongin, Fullerton’s sister city.
The Muckenthaler Cultural Center Gallery is open Monday through Friday from 10 AM to 5 PM. Inquiries can be made by phone at 714-738-6595.
