DAN-AH KIM
Dan-ah, age 9, with her father, Grandmaster Kim.
Dan-ah Kim was born in Seoul, South Korea, but her family moved often. The daughter of a Tae Kwon Do master, her childhood was spent in several dojangs in the U.S., and she earned her black belt by age ten. As a child she also enjoyed drawing, but had never considered it could be a career, until she decided in high school that she’d like to work in film. This decision led her to prioritize her visual art skills over martial arts, and she subsequently attended Pratt Institute where she received her BFA in Communications Design, (though she recalls having much more fun in her illustration classes!).
Dan-ah’s lifelong love of reading began with the first book she remembers: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. She credits the work with her discovery of the great potential of stories.
Today, Dan-ah is based out of Brooklyn and her career is an artistic melange, all rooted in storytelling. She works in film and television as a graphic designer, creating props, signage, and dressing for sets. Her fine art work, largely mixed media comprised of gouache, pencil, cut paper, and thread, has been shown in galleries and shops all over the U.S., as well as in London and Paris. She has done artist residencies at Can Serrat in El Bruc, Spain, and NES in Skagaströnd, Iceland, and illustration clients include Maison Kitsuné and Jason Wu. Most recently, and for several years now, Dan-ah has felt a call to tell her own stories, in the medium of her first love, books.
