One of the great talents of our time, both a performance artist and masterful if not surreal storyteller, Kim Jung Gi, has passed away suddenly, as reported on his Instagram account yesterday. We had a personal relationship with the artist, as he was one of the highlights of our Juxtapoz x Superflat exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery in 2017, and have followed his evolution as one of the great illustrators we have ever seen. He made the difficult seem effortless, and had an endless imagination that he was able to perform his art in front of audience.
"I think that I can draw just about anything without any restrictions. Surprisingly, I sometimes have difficulty in drawing simple things without reference, like a pinwheel, or a paper airplane," Jung Gi told us in a 2016 interview. And his legacy will be just that, the ability to draw with almost no restrictions and a stream of consciousness we may never see again. —Evan Pricco
