Desire, suppression, vitality behind Kim Ji-hee’s ornate faces

Kim Ji-hee paints countless faces — often crowned and ornamented with exaggerated jewel-laden styling. Smiling behind heavily embellished glasses, the figures appear glamorous, immediately drawing viewers to their brilliance. But upon closer inspection, the smiles appear increasingly artificial in some way, even melancholic, inviting questions about what lies behind the splendid glasses. The painting series, titled “Sealed Smile,” began in 2008, created with Korean traditional painting technique