Kim Lim: The Space Between. A Retrospective at the National Gallery

Explore the artistry of Singapore-born British visionary Kim Lim (1936–1997) in the most extensive exhibition of her works ever presented at the National Gallery Singapore. Kim Lim: The Space Between will showcase over 150 works, including sculptures, prints, maquettes, never-before-seen photographs, and archival materials.

The exhibition celebrates Lim as a modern art pioneer and a significant figure in 20th-century sculpture and printmaking. The artworks and archival materials offer new perspectives on Lim's artistic journey, philosophy, and creative connections, highlighting her use of suggestion and metaphor to harmonize light, space, and rhythm.

Lim left Singapore for London in 1954 to study at the St. Martin’s School of Fine Art and Slade School of Fine Art. Besides sculpture and printmaking, she also pursued drawing at the same time, unified by a focus on abstraction, light, space, and rhythm. She developed a transcultural style, rejecting cultural labels and dominant artistic narratives.

Ongoing till 2 February 2025, this exhibition is divided into four sections, tracing her artistic evolution across four decades.

Early Works: Assembling, Delineating

The exhibition begins with Lim's early works, highlighting her exploration of vertical and architectonic forms through methods like delineating surfaces and constructing verticality, stacking, segmentation, and alternation.

Inspired by Constantin Brâncuși’s works, Lim developed her iconic column-based sculptures with titles like Samurai (1961), Pegasus (1962), Ronin (1963), and Centaur II (1963), reflecting her fascination with elemental and archaic forms. These early explorations established her lifelong focus on spatiality and abstract scale.

Shift to Industrial Materials in Keen Edges, Eccentric Colour

Lim transitioned to industrial materials like blockboard, steel, aluminium and fiberglass, using brightly colored industrial paint to create sculptures to give them a uniform, flat finish. This concealed the materials' natural characteristics and emphasized geometric precision. During this period, which was after her student years, her restrained approach focused on formal qualities like color, edge, and negative space.

Light, Space, and Rhythm

The third section of the exhibition at the Singtel Gallery 2 highlights her shift from traditional mass and volume to an exploration of light and space. She adopted a modular approach, using materials like wood and aluminium to create basic units that cast varying shadow patterns, emphasizing the "spaces in-between" as integral to her works.

A key feature in this section is her Intervals series (1973), drawn from the National and Tate Collections. The ladder-like wooden structures with spines and prongs have no fixed orientation and are arranged and lit to cast rhythmic shadows. These works transform light and negative space into sculptural elements, offering endless configurations and perspectives for visitors to experience.

Lim's Stone Sculptures in The Weight of a Line

The exhibition concludes with Lim’s late works from 1979, marking a pivotal shift in her practice. After two decades of working with industrial materials like wood, fiberglass, and steel, she turned to stone carving. This transition was inspired by her 1979 survey exhibition at the Roundhouse Gallery London, where she turned to more organic forms.

She embraced natural rhythms and lines, distilling her observations of the natural world around her. She aimed to create works that would “ricochet in the viewer and cross various boundaries of experience – to trigger responses beyond the object itself.”

Explore Lim’s Artmaking Process

Visitors are invited to dive into Lim's artmaking process through rarely displayed photographs and maquettes from her studio. These displays are incorporated throughout the exhibition to enrich the viewers' understanding of each of the four sections.

You can find her maquettes, travel photographs, printing plates and wood blocks, sketchbooks, and studies alongside her sculptures and prints. The materials reflect the influence of her travels in her practice, offering an in-depth perspective on her process and showcasing her innovative approach and lasting legacy.

When: Now till 2 Feb 2025
Where: National Gallery Singapore, 1 St Andrew’s Road, Singapore 178957. Level 3, Singtel Special Exhibition Galleries 2 & 3, City Hall Wing.

For more information about the exhibition, click here.