Gemma Kahng

Biography

Gemma Kahng was born in Masan, Korea, in 1954 and came to the United States as a teenager. She studied fashion design at the Art Institute of Chicago, graduating in 1979, and worked as a design assistant to Cathy Hardwick in New York before launching her own label in 1989. Her collections, made in Manhattan's garment district, were known for inventive use of wool, lace, satin and silk. They were covered by Women's Wear Daily and The New York Times and sold at Neiman Marcus and Kirna Zabête, and she was a CFDA member.

In the Hudson Valley she moved into painting and gallery-making. In 2019 she founded the Beekman Arts Club in a historic barn in Hopewell Junction, later expanding to a mansion and Victorian house in Newburgh. She has had a run of solo shows there, from Opening Ceremony (2019) and All Dressed Up; by Nature (2020) to Birds of a Feather (2021) and Strike a Pose (2023). Her paintings treat plumage and fur as a kind of couture, drawing out the patterns and glamour of animals' natural dress.

At Holland Tunnel Gallery she showed in Three of a Kind (2023) with Julie Lindell and Jacques Roch. The gallery described her recent paintings as bold, bright birds and animals that continue her interest in innate beauty and ornamentation; Secretary Bird with Blue Gown was among the works shown.

Practice. Paintings of birds and animals whose feathers and coats are rendered as ornament and dress, carrying a fashion designer's eye for pattern, fabric and glamour into painting.