Kim soon entered the Department of Sculpture at Hongik University. Following her graduation in 1959, she went to Paris in 1964, where she studied sculpture and lithography. While in Paris, Kim spent time with some of Korea’s leading artists, including Lee Ungno, Han Mook, Moon Shin and Suk Ran Hi. Lee Ungno, in particular, would become an advising figure for Kim, while she occasionally tutored Lee in sculpture, helping him produce several wood sculptures.
After completing her studies overseas, Kim returned to Korea, where she spent ten years as a teacher at Sungshin Women’s University. She also established the Korean Sculptress Association to consolidate women sculptors. It was around that time that she happened to visit Argentina for travel. Falling in love with the vast nature and mighty trees of the country, she decided to settle down there.
After seeing Kim’s work, the director of the Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires Museum of Modern Art) arranged for her to hold a solo exhibition. “It was the first time I’d seen sculpture that preserved the tree’s original shape, including its bark, while revealing its heartwood,” the director recalled. As Kim began to make a name for herself as an artist, she would also make a decision that set the course for the rest of her life. “I had to decide whether I should live a comfortable life, making monthly wages, or take the difficult path of becoming an artist. I wanted to live for myself. I wanted to be an artist,” she said.
Kim chose to live in Argentina, where she dedicated several decades of her life solely to her work as an artist. Utilizing various trees such as algarrobo, lapacho, caldén and olive, her pieces seek to achieve visual harmony between the bark and wood. While living in Mexico, she carried out experimental work cutting into stones such as onyx to reveal the subtle colors inside. For three decades following her departure from Korea, she honed a form of expression unique to herself, eventually opening the Museo Kim Yun Shin, an art museum named after herself, in 2008.