She was considered something of a child prodigy and first exhibited at the age of 12 at a large mixed show in Rio de Janeiro among other Brazilian artists such as Scliar and Bianco. At 17 Kim left Brazil to study Fine Arts at the Parsons School of Design in New York City with Larry Rivers and, under the tutelage of Professor Earl Pardon, at Skidmore College in upstate New York where she developed a new technique in enamel painting on steel. During this period her reputation grew as she exhibited extensively in Brazil and New York. She was awarded prizes and honours for her achievements by the Beaux Arts Institute of Brazil and also produced a series of illustrations for the Broadway magician Doug Henning. Her work has been published internationally since 1972 when she produced a series of cards for the Pan American Foundation (a branch of the United Nations for the benefit of children's education).
In 1975 she was granted special permission at the Central School of Art to further her development in the technique she had pioneered and also to work on printmaking with Norman Ackroyd R.A. While in England she began designing her numerous record sleeves.
Can Utility and the Coastliners
© 1977
Front cover of 'Genesis Lyrics'
Watercolour. 35 x 47 cm
Exhibited at the Thumb Gallery, 1979, London
"... By our command waters retreat, show my power, halt at my feet ..."
Kim first met Genesis in December 1974. The supergroup's strong visual show, their lyrics and music had a strong effect on her. From the moment she showed her work to them it was clear that her paintings and their music had particular affinities - a common ground of feeling, taste and inspiration. Genesis, known for their ethereal music, pioneered the use of visual theatrics in rock performances and they created a continuity of sound and vision, music, literature and art. This marriage of word and picture inspired Kim to create a magical book of lithographs, watercolours, oils, etchings, egg tempera and glass on steel called 'Genesis Lyrics'.
In Kim's world everything is possible, both for the dreamer and the dreamed - the inward eye sees what it chooses. Sometimes it sees vaguely, figures as shadowy as lost friends, seen through the gauze of memory as misconnections, lost possibilities. Sometimes it sees clearly, stark, frozen visions of dark woods and dead castles, pools that death watches. Always it sees its own logic, the logic of myth and imagining - Here are places where who you are is wood, water and rainbow.
