Kim Lim: Between Teeth and Tenderness at Tang Contemporary
A Conversation on Symbolism, Trauma, and the Healing Power of Art
Kim Lim, Teeth and Tenderness. Credits: Kim Lim & Tang Contemporary
On March 15, Tang Contemporary Art’s Bangkok venue inaugurates a solo exhibition by Filipino artist Kim Lim. Titled Teeth and Tenderness, the show immerses viewers in an imaginary world where the apparent delicacy of a fairytale-like setting conceals an underlying violence—an ever-present trauma that permeates both the scene and its characters, while also revealing their resilience in facing it.
The figures—whether human, animal, or hybrid creatures—move through small idyllic gardens, like actors confined to a theatrical stage, surrounded by carefully composed scenography. Graceful fronds, vibrant flowers, and fleshy mushrooms decorate these gardens in a visual language that oscillates between the expressionist and the ornamental, sometimes extending into abstract surfaces reminiscent of Klimt’s geometric patterns. However, these delicate backdrops also harbor an oppressive element: the characters navigate within a restricted space, where the idyllic nature surrounding them contrasts starkly with often undefined backgrounds and intense chromatic clashes.
Kim Lim, Shadowplay. Credits: Kim Lim & Tang Contemporary
The fragile creatures that inhabit these spaces appear to drift aimlessly, like prisoners pacing in circles during their hour of reprieve. In some instances, their immersion in the environment is so profound that the boundaries between plant and animal blur—a tree may resemble a giraffe, or a creature may disguise itself within the dark contours of a trunk. Yet, the relationships between these figures on the canvas are not narrative-driven but emotional. What binds them is a shared tenderness, but also a resilience in the face of their context—a solidarity not born from common fragility, but symbolized by teeth, which serve as emblems of both resistance and affection. Teeth can tear and destroy in certain situations, but they can also bite gently.
Artist Talk with Kim Lim
Q: Let’s start with teeth. I find this choice fascinating because, symbolically, teeth carry an inherent ambiguity: violence, sensuality, affection... Yet they are also the most primitive weapon at the disposal of both humans and animals—almost a last resort, but perhaps the most visceral and sincere one. What inspired this choice?
A: The choice of “teeth” comes from their raw duality. They are instruments of survival—used for nourishment but also as weapons when cornered. This idea of something so essential yet so dangerous, intimate yet aggressive, resonated with me. Teeth hold memory. They bear marks of age, stress, and history. In my work, they symbolize both resilience and vulnerability—the things we bare when we are at our most instinctual, whether in love, rage, or self-defense. I find it fascinating how they function as a visceral truth, an expression that cannot be softened.
Q: Trauma and the struggle to overcome it—or at least to coexist with it—are central themes in your artistic research. Founding the Kapit Kulay Foundation, which brings art as psychological support to women’s prisons and orphanages, must have had a significant impact on your work. How has this experience influenced your artistic practice?
A: Working with imprisoned women has profoundly shaped my perspective on storytelling through art. Trauma leaves traces—sometimes in the body, sometimes in silence—and I see art as a means of transmuting that weight into something tangible yet transformative. My work has become more layered, more attuned to the unseen struggles people carry. I’ve also started integrating themes of duality—the tension between what is expressed and what is suppressed, what is broken and what is mending. Art, in this sense, is not just a tool for self-expression but a medium for reclaiming one’s inner strength—the power to move forward and to imagine new ways of doing so.
Kim Lim, Shared Might. Credits: Kim Lim & Tang Contemporary
Q: You worked for many years as an interior designer. Do you feel that background influences your approach to formal aspects of painting, such as composition or color?
A: My background in interior design has undoubtedly influenced my approach to composition, balance, and spatial awareness. I often think of a canvas as a space—one where form and negative space play equally crucial roles. My experience with materials and textures also seeps into my painting practice; I’m drawn to layering, to creating depth, to the interplay of light and color that invites immersion. Even in abstraction, I’m conscious of how a viewer navigates an image, much like how a person experiences a physical environment.
Q: The figures you depict are partly revealed, partly concealed. An animal blends into the trunk of a tree, a girl’s silhouette emerges from a red background. It’s as if there are multiple levels of communication on the canvas—some voices loud, others whispered. How do you see the relationship between your characters and the viewer?
A: My process begins with fragments—gestures, weight, movement—layered into figures that exist between concealment and revelation. Some emerge fully, others dissolve into their surroundings, mirroring the way identity is shaped by both presence and absence. In Shadowplay, echoes of longing and memory surface subtly, a response to the filtered perceptions in Rose Colored Glasses. The figures do not simply stand alone; they are in conversation, with each other and with the viewer, their silence holding as much meaning as their form.
Kim Lim, Rose Colored Glasses. Credits: Kim Lim & Tang Contemporary
Each layer carries traces of what came before—erased, painted over, but never fully gone. I work in cycles, allowing figures to appear and recede, building tension between what is hidden and what demands to be seen. The process itself mirrors the themes in the work: the weight of memory, the act of carrying, the quiet shift between holding on and stepping forward. Nothing is fixed, only in transition, waiting for the viewer to step in and complete the story.
Q: The female figure is at the core of your work, yet in contemporary society, she carries the weight of stereotypes and social expectations. How do your characters engage with this burden?
A: There is always a weight to be carried, as seen in Shared Might, where a creature bears more than itself—an unspoken labor familiar to many. Yet carrying is not the opposite of freedom; movement does not always mean release. In Still We Rise, a figure once held up by strings now moves on her own, crossing into a space that was once out of reach. The finish line is there—not as an end, but as a passage, a moment of arrival that has been unfolding long before it is seen. These images are not answers but openings, moments suspended between burden and flight, between what we hold and what we are just beginning to let go of.
Kim Lim, Still We Raise. Credits: Kim Lim & Tang Contemporary
Q: Thank you so much for your time and for offering us insight into your work. Congratulations on your exhibition—I look forward to future conversations about art and the important work you do with your Foundation.
A: Thank you for seeing, for questioning, and for allowing the work to exist beyond the canvas. I also look forward to continuing this dialogue, especially in exploring the work of my foundation.
Maraming Salamat!
About the Artist
Kim Lim b. 1985, Manila, Philippines Kim Lim is a painter and interior designer exploring identity, emotion, and the psychological depths of human experience. Her art blends fairy-tale aesthetics with raw reality, portraying the resilience and complexity of women’s lives. With a background in interior design, she brings a keen sense of composition, color, and spatial awareness to her work, crafting pieces rich in symbolism and emotional depth.
Through her art, she invites viewers to confront truth, beauty, and the complexities of human existence. As the founder of the Kapit Kulay Foundation, she uses art as a tool for healing and empowerment, bringing creative therapy workshops to women’s jails and children’s orphanages.
Kim Lim. Photo by: Wesley Villarica
Teeth and Tenderness is on view at Tang Contemporary in Bangkok until April 20.
For more info about Tang Contemporary and other Bangkok galleries and art institutions, check our Exhibitions section.